


Useless But Try Anyway

by RougeSpirit1



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Brotherly Angst, Brotherly Love, Canon-Typical Violence, Everyone Needs A Hug, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Nightmares, OC tries to change future, Oh boy where do I begin, Original Akuma no Mi | Devil Fruit, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Third Person Limited, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Doubt, Slavery, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Trafalgar D. Water Law is a Little Shit, Trauma, Wishes, only omniscient when convienent to plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 36,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25297534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RougeSpirit1/pseuds/RougeSpirit1
Summary: Life sucks. You have the chance to change things but all efforts are eventually reduced to zilch. Sometimes though, leaving things as they are is the wisest decision you could make. You screw the timeline by being there anyway. Might as well not cause anymore chaos that you already will. A better outcome just may be your reward. But when the variables between you and your goal strecthes from 1 to infinity, the "better outcome" may not exactly be what you are hoping for.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	1. From Lead to Ash

**Author's Note:**

> Transition from FF.net to here. Original Publish Date: 4/9/2018

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A One Piece fan gets sucked into...you know One Piece!

"Ugghh! You need to stop crying over this. It's annoying. " a younger brother folded his arms, voice laced with irritation. " You watched this set of episodes three times already. What are you? A masochist?"

The older sister was watching Law's back story for the third time and for the third time she broke out in tears. There was just something about the episodes that kept drawing her to them despite the massive heartbreak and emptiness she felt once each episode concluded. Their expressions, the raw emotion behind each voice. Each scene. No. Each individual frame despite the similarities told their own story. Had their own meanings. She couldn't even comprehend how well this backstory was done. Out of the ones she had watched so far, this was by far her absolute favorite. A tale of rejection and betrayal. An unlikely friendship bonded between two completely opposite people. Simply marvelous.

" No." she defended herself, wiping several tears that were replaced with new ones. "You don't like or watch One Piece, so you'll never understand!" she whined, a pout accompanying folded arms.

Her attention was temporarily diverted to the deep frown that cemented itself in my brother's face. Clear sounds on her laptop becoming nothing but muffled noises as she and Yanai were interlocked in a battle of non-verbal superiority. Her pout versus his deep-set frown. For the longest, he had won, his iron stare usually shattering her within the first few minutes. Not today. Her pride as the oldest sibling was tossed around enough. Between being mistaken for twins and him as the oldest, he had lost some level of dignity, watching as he slowly began to tower over her like some sort of skyscraper.

_BANG!_

She jumped up slightly, startled from the sudden noise coming from her lap. She looked down at the screen. The end of Doflamingo's barrel pointed at Corazon, yet…smoke had already been pouring from the mouth of the gun. Spots of vermillion dotted Corazon's heavily stained shirt. The younger blonde's eyes began to flutter as he belted his inner monologue, smile on his face as he wished Law the best.

She didn't scream or cry as she did the first time she witnessed this murder. Slowly, she brought the screen down and slide the laptop on the side of her bed. She rolled over in my bed, back facing Yanai as she brought my comforters up to my neck.

"Please leave. It is now time for my half hour brooding session. Door is at your 3:00." She jokingly said when in reality she was exhausted from pulling an allnighter due to the immense amount of homework she had.

She didn't need to turn around to know that her younger brother had shaken his head and rolled his head. Despite his seemingly irritated expression, she didn't miss the soft chuckling sigh that escaped his lips from my actions.

"You're too sweet for this world. You know that right?"

"Mmm." she turned her head towards him and tilted her head upwards towards him slightly, an 'oh. I know' expression on her face.

She could feel his body pressing into mine as he hovered above her face, gently pulling her glasses off them, folding the legs then resting them on the night stand.

"Happy brooding." he said as he left the room, shutting the door with a quiet click.

.

.

.

_BEEP. BEEP. BEEP._

She nearly leaped out of her bed, startled as she was suddenly jerked out her peaceful and dreamless sleep. The sudden infiltration of her eardrums with such a jarring sound left her so disoriented that when she leaned over to fetch her glasses, she stretched to far tumbled out of her bed, dragging the comforters down with her.

With a pained groan, she rubbed her eyes, and sat up from her face down position on the floor, kicking off the comforters in the process. Getting up, she rolled the bedspreads into a ball and tossed them back on top of the mattress. She put on her glasses and grabbed her phone and put in the password, smiling at the wallpaper. It was a picture of Luffy and Chopper pressing their cheeks against an irked Law. Her eyes moved to the top right corner of the screen and widened.

"Oh noes! I'm going to be late for school!" she exclaimed as she ran out of her room, and down the hall to where the bathroom had resided.

She had slept through the entirety of yesterday. She pushed through the door, nearly breaking the frame as she yanked off her pajamas and jumped in the shower, heavily flinching as several beams of freezing cold water contacted her brown skin. Eventually the water warmed, and she was able to take a decent shower, brushing her teeth in the process. She jumped out and dried herself off, well, not completely given the way her uniform stuck to her as she tried to pull it on. Today she would be very active so she decided to forgo her glasses for contacts. Dumping out her book bag on the floor, she tossed in the things she needed for the day and quite literally flew down the stairs.

In her haste she had tripped on the third step, floating in mid air for a few seconds before gravity took control of her, bringing her down. Luckily, Yanai had caught her before she landed on the jagged edges of the steps and seriously injure herself.

"Whoa. Watch where you're going Speedy Gonzales." He smiled, setting her down on the ground.

"Quiet you." a smile tugged on the corner of her lips as she straightened my uniform.

In the corner of her eyes, she could see that he was looking at her with a quizzical expression, head moving up and down her slim frame. Suddenly he began to laugh, having to lean against the wall to brace himself but ended up sliding down anyway.

"Um…what's so funny?" she raised bushy eye brow at him, innocently unaware

"I-I'm sorry." He stuttered through laughs. "Oh man…ugh. I guess this is my fault but whoo. Oh man…ugh…Bahahaha!" he calmed down briefly only to start laughing again.

"What's so funny?" she stomped her foot down a slightly miffed expression forming on her face. She ended up sighing, rolling her eyes in the process as she walked past him, grabbing a slice of bread and quickly smearing butter on it. "I have to time for your foolishness. I'm going to be late."

She opened the door, not hearing his warning, and was greeted by a blast of wind so hot that she immediately started sweating. She peered outside, everything was completely warped.

"What?" she slammed the door shut, confusion laced in her facial features.

"I meant to tell school was cancelled today because of the heat wave. The only reason you're not feeling anything was because the current temperature of inside and the current temperature of outside is cancelling each other." He finally explained to me, wiping away tear streaks.

"Is this the product of your 'Homemade A/C Unit?" she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yep!" he stuck his thumbs up with a 'D' shaped grin.

Yanai was an inventor. An inventor that insisted on building every electrical appliance that we owned himself. Or at least buying them out of the stores and adding his own modifications. He exclaimed that the current inventors were not seeing outside the box, only working along the lines of what people wanted rather than what they needed. If that makes any sense.

It worked by recording the outside temperature, then adjusting the indoor temperature to cancel the outside temperature. It resulted in a weirdly neutral atmosphere. Never hot and never cold. At first, it was a bit disorienting living in an atmosphere where you couldn't distinctly feel any changes in atmospheric temperature. The numbers were always fluctuating, tracking the shifts in the outside temperature to keep up with the changes. Almost as if our house and the outside was just a giant reversible reaction.

He got his genius from mom while she, on the other hand, inherited her dad's ability to carry a tune. Also, she could play the guitar and was a beast on the ice. But that's about it.

She sighed climbing over the couch and sunk in the seat head first, her skirt flipping over to obey the laws of gravity.

"Can't you sit in the couch like a normal person?" Yanai asked as he sat next to her then immediately turning his head at the panty shot provided by my flipped skirt.

"Nope". she giggled, grabbing the remote for the television.

She turned on the set and scrolled through the channels, looking for something interesting to watch. Unfortunately, there was nothing that caught the interest of she and her brother. It was then that they heard a scuttling noise coming from the ceiling, a loud thump and pained mewls.

Yanai let out a huff and stood up. "Stupid cat." He grumbled.

She grabbed at his shirt before he left her stretching range. "Hold up bro. I got this." Turning upright, she got off the couch and entered the hall that led to the basement. Instead of going down there she looked up and tiptoed, fingers barely scraping against the string hanging down.

She managed to grab it and pulled as hard as she could, standing back as a set of stairs slowly descended from the ceiling. She climbed up, immediately sneezing as she stuck her head in their dusty musty attic. She turned her head, looking for the source of the pained noises.

"Ah!" she finished ascending the stairs and moved over to the cat, whose tail was trapped beneath a pile of boxes. Again.

She gave a chuckle to the stray that repeatedly came back. No matter how far they sent it, it always seemed to find its way back there. And the one time they tried to accept it, it rejected them and ran away. Such a mysterious creature. She gently moved the boxes and watched as the cat immediately scuttled away, knocking more boxes in the process. She face palmed and re-stacked the boxes.

It was then that she noticed something shiny glimmering between the floor boards. She knelt and dug it from the crevices, giving what appeared to be a pendent with the symbol of Doflamingo's Jolly Roger a quizzical look. On the back end of the pendant was a captilizied W in cursive. She simply shrugged, stuffing it in her shirt pocket.

As she made her way down the attic stairs, she suddenly began to feel sick. A sinking feeling in her stomach as her head became light. The world tilted on its axis. No. she was. She had overstepped and was now falling. The motion making her feel like she wanted to puke. Her head slammed against the last step, probably leaving a gash as she felt something warm drip down my face.

Yanai must have heard the bang her crashing body made because she heard him screaming her name and the thumps of his heavy footfalls. Everything was muddled. Stars danced in the corners of her blurry vision.

She felt warm hands cradle her body.

"…hold on…. everything's doing to be alright…" was the last thing she heard before she completely blacked out.

After what seemed like an eternity, she finally opened my eyes. It was bright, too bright. So, she closed them again and rolled over, hand landing in something wet. The sudden splash instead woke her up as she jumped up to wipe whatever was on my shirt. However, that motion was forgotten when she saw where she was. It was an alleyway. A surprisingly clean one at that. She whipped my head around trying to figure out where she was. One moment she was at the bottom of attic stairs, feeling poisoned and now she's in an alley way. She put a hand to her head still bleeding. What was strange was that she could see clearly. Nothing was blurry, as if the world had switched from 240p to 1080p. Oh right. The contacts.

"Yanai?! Yanai?! Where are you?!" she shouted, cupping her hands to her mouth as she looked up and down the alley way. "This isn't funny Yanai." she frowned, even though she knew her brother would never do anything like this.

She huffed "Ugh. Standing in this alley wouldn't get me anywhere."

So, she left. And paused at a sight she had only ever seen in anime. She gripped her head and shook it back and forth. No. This was impossible. This absolutely cannot be happening. There's no way her possibly concussed brain could cook up a fictional place with such detail. Yet, she had to try.

"Excuse me…is…is this Flevance? The White City?" she nervously asked a man dressed lavishly.

"Why yes this is!" the man cheerfully answered before noticing her haggard appearance. "Oh dear. You're hurt! Come, let me lead you to the hospital. I'm sure Dr. Trafalgar can help you." He out stretched his hand. But she didn't take it.

She was too shocked, stunned, her body froze, eyes unfocused, as her jaw fell slightly agape. She felt sick again, and winced as she fainted, head colliding with the concrete. Her senses were muffled once again, the only thing she was hearing were sounds of urgency. The only thing she felt was foreign hands manhandling her body. But she couldn't do anything about that.

She woke up in a hospital bed, surrounded by doctors preparing to take clothes off and replace it with a white medical gown.

"Don't touch me." she said a bit more hostile than intended given how some of them backed away.

"Now now. Don't be afraid." a voice she had heard only once cut through the mumbles of the other doctors.

In the sea of white coats was a coat much whiter than the rest. The coat was draped around the frame

of a man with short black hair and a thin mustache. He was wearing thick coke bottle glass and he held a clip board in his hand. Immediately tensed up and tried to leave the bed, only to be halted by the IV drip connected by my wrist.

"Hey hey hey. Calm down. Calm down. We're not doing to hurt you. Poor dear. Frightened to bits she is." she heard him say through her screams of protest as the other doctors tried to calm her down.

"No! No! Shut up! Stop talking! Stop talking! You're not real! You're not real! "she shouted, everything a haze as she yanked the IV out my wrist and rammed through the doctors, running towards the door but stopped to stare at the person that had entered.

"Mom. What's going on? We're going to be late to the festival." asked a voice full of concern.

And she froze at the sight before her. It was a young Trafalgar Law. The one before the boy who strapped grenades around his chest. The one before the boy who wanted to watch the world burn. The one who didn't have a mental break down. The one full of hope and happiness, not hell bent on revenge.

Seeing a person in an anime was completely different from seeing them in real life. Needless to say, it was absolutely jarring. The way his tan skin reflected the light. The way little tufts of dark blue hair peeked from beneath his snow leopard print cap. His gold eyes reflecting her image a thousand times like a kaleidoscope. They weren't a sharp ice cold gray blue like the anime portrayed them. They were warm, streaks and flecks of amber dotting them.

She halfway snapped out of it, still deciding to jump out out an open window. She landed in a dense bush with a grunt, ignoring all the scrapes she received and the loss of her shoes. It didn't matter. She needed to get out of there. Everything would go to hell so quickly the transfer from 1 to 100 wouldn't even be noticeable. She didn't want to be here when Marines started blasting holes in people. Or burning buildings. She didn't want the screams of the dying etched in her brain ready to be repeated at the drop of a hat. She wouldn't be able to handle that.

Yet, something prevented her from dashing off. The thought, of saving at least one person. Lami. Sbe knew what was going to happen to her. If she could just linger and pull her out of the building. There is a chance that she could live as long as him and when he ate the fruit, he could heal himself and her. She shook her head. No. She was already in the most advanced stages of the disease. She would never make it. Her burning to death was a mercy. She shook my head. This is a dream, right? She could do whatever she wanted right? Flevance didn't have to burn. Law and Lami didn't have to get sick right? Corazon didn't have to die.

She was quite literally yanked out of my thoughts when hands suddenly grabbed me and pulled be through the window, the bottom of my skirt ripping in the process. Her eyes flickered to the concerned and confused looks of the doctors.

"I'm…I'm sorry." she began to tear up and eventually cry. This was unlike anything she had ever experienced before. She passed out twice, stuck in a doomed city surrounded by doomed people, so close to the doom date. She just wanted her brother. Just wanted to escape from whatever was happening.

Law's father patted her on her back, rubbing circles into her spine to calm her down. Eventually she did, a few sniffles still escaping her. "Are you calm now?" he asked.

She nodded her head in response wiping away her tear streaks. He gave her a gentle smile and asked her some questions. She answered accordingly. The next few moments passed so swiftly, she wasn't sure whether they had happened or not. He cleaned her head wound, and disinfected it, wrapping a bandage around it. He cleaned her other scrapes and put bandages of those. He gave her some advice which she nodded at. She wasn't really paying attention to him though. She was more focused on the boy staring intensely at her, the hand of his little sister gripped in his. Law and Lami. Two children who will experience immense pain so soon.

The snapping of fingers snapped me out of my state. "Excuse me dear. Where are your parents? I must discuss the medical bill with them. Health care isn't cheap after all." He lightly joked.

"I don't have any parents." she answered. Not in this world or in hers.

The doctor looked sad. "Do you have any other guardian that could possible assist? It's only 200 beli."

She shook her head. "Sorry. No living relatives. The only thing I own are the clothes on my back." she twiddled my thumbs and hung her head.

Dr. Trafalgar was about to say something to me when he was interrupted by Lami. The auburn-haired girl had rushed up to him and began pulling on his coat. "Are you done yet? I want to go to the festival." She whined, as he began pulling him away. The chair the doctor was sitting in rolling away.

The man gave her an apologetic stare and she just smiled. "It's okay. Really. I…guess I'll stay here in the city or something. Until I can figure out a way to pay you. It's…not like I have any place to go."

A frown formed on his face before a smile crossed it. "I know how you can pay me. Coming with my family and I to the festival."

"What?" she, Law and Lami exclaimed at the same time. Our tones where very different however. She protested. Lami squealed with happiness. Law was filled with confusion. She mentally narrowed her eyes at him. Why did he keep staring at her as if she was a subject under some sort of examination table?

She stood up. "Why? You don't even know me. I could be a killer for all you know."

He chuckled and shook his head. "You're not a killer. You're my patient. And it's a doctor's job to stick with their patient until they are 100% better. I can tell you've been through a lot the past couple of minutes. And you're still frazzled. I figured some nice food and games would help." he explained, handing her her Mary Jane's.

"Thank you. But on one condition. Your family also has to say yes. I'd rather not impose." she slipped her feet back into her shoes.

The doctor turned his head back to his family, who all but nodded. Well save for Law, who just seemed to be staring at her with curiosity.

"Well then. Let's go Miss…I'm sorry, I haven't even introduced myself. My name is Doctor Trafalgar [REDACTED]. "

She halted her steps and blinked at him asking him to repeat his name. He adjusted his glasses and repeated his name. Fuzz and static. Odd. It must be the cause that in the anime we never know his actual name.

"Nice to meet you." she simply said as he led her to the other members of his family.

"This is my wife also Doctor Trafalgar, my son Law and my daughter Lami." he stretched a hand at each member of his family.

She nodded, giving her hellos.

"So…what's your name." Law asks arms crossed an eye brow raised.

Before she could answer, she felt her body being pushed out the door, squeezed in between the frames with the other people surrounding me.

"You can ask her name later. Let's go! Let's go!" Lami shouted as she crawled beneath our legs and out the door, dashing down the hallway.

The other members chuckled at Lami's antics and followed as she sped down the stairs. Completely foregoing the elevator, she didn't have it in her to run. In fact, all she got was a sense of dread, knowing what eventually would happen. Law pulled her ahead.

"Let's go Miss-ya" he smiled gently, noticing my distress.

As Miss was led outside, she gaped. Everything really was white. The plants. The buildings. The rocks. It was as if she had stepped into a snowy fairy tale. The Trafalgar family stood on the side lines, Lami on Mr. Trafalgar's shoulders as the watched all the marchers march down the street. Loud music blaring from trumpets and horns. Drummers banged their sticks on their percussion instruments, each beat resonating with your heart. Confetti sprinkled the air, crisp wind blowing it about the place. Strips of it catching the occasional citizen's hair. Children ran around playing games with each other, becoming tired quickly and their parents buying ice cream cones for them.

Looking at all of this, Miss mentally shook her head. Even if everything was about to be destroyed, it would be an absolute waste not to enjoy what was here now.

"I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life! Thank you for me inviting me. Doctor Trafalgar! "she grinned at him.

"You're quite welcome. Let's have some fun why don't we."

Miss gave a nod of approval and joined in the festivities. Despite her initial cheerful demeanor, her mind was counting down the seconds till the bodies began to hit the floor. Her stomach lurched each time the hour hand on the Clock Tower leaned towards another number. Her palms became sweaty as her discomfort began to resurface.

Law gently shook Miss's shoulder, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Oi. Are you alright? Do you want me to call dad?"

"N-no. I'm fine." Miss chuckled nervously, rubbing a hand in her hair that stopped halfway due to how tight her curls were.

Feedback from the Microphone Snail caused everyone in the vicinity to wince. The speaker apologizing. " S-sorry! My name is [REDACTED] and welcome to Flevance's 32rd Annual White City Festival. According to a general survey from the citizens, the mayor has decided to add a free for all concert. It is held in the square. Anyone who has any musical talent can pick a number from the box. When it is their turn, they'll get a chance so strut their stuff!"

The citizens cheered, and her attention was caught. Law turned towards Miss and saw her intrigued expression, asking if she wanted to participate. She shook her head in protest way too quickly to be believable. Thus, the result was Law and Lami dragging her towards the town square and forcing her hand in the box. She was number thirty-two. Perfect.

.

.

.

" I've never performed publicly before...this should be interesting." she chuckled to hide her nervousness.

It was true. She'd never sung in front of more than ten people. They were usually just for her family and close friends. Normally she's too nervous to perform in front of strangers. Her stomach would twist, and she would be so scared. The very few times she stood in the front of a crowed, she became a brick that would eventually crack under pressure.

"I believe in you Miss-san!" Lami smiled at me.

Miss looked at Mr. and Mrs. Trafalgar who smiled and nodded at me. Feeling encouraged, she grabbed one of the guitars they hand on the stands and showed them her card

The security guard nodded and led her to the front of the stage where a Microphone Snail stood on a stand.

"Hi! "she gave a small wave to the crowd, who she felt had their gaze on her for too long. " Enjoy!"

She let out a breath and tuned the guitar, strumming it a few times to make sure none of the notes were off. She wasn't sure what to sing to be completely honest. She was too nervous. She should have protested. Regardless of how she felt, her brain gave the instruction for my fingers to start playing. As soon as she heard the first few sets of notes, she realized what song I had begun to play. Warrior by Aurora

"I _fall asleep in my own tears, I cry for the world for everyone. And I built a boat to float in I'm floating away."_ she began shakily.

"I _can't recall the last time I opened my eyes to see the world as beautiful. And I built a cage to hide in I'm hiding. I'm trying to battle the night"_ her voice steadied.

" _Let love conquer your mind. Warrior Warrior. Just reach out for the light. Warrior Warrior._ _I am a warrior,_ _warrior_ _warrior I am warrior, warrior of love."_

During the brief pause, she heard a few isolated claps coming from the crowd. It encouraged her. A little goes a long way right.

" _I_ _stand behind the wall of people and thoughts mind controlling. And I hold a sword to guide me I'm fighting my way. I can't recall the last time I opened my eyes to see the world as beautiful. And I built a cage to hide in I'm hiding I'm trying to battle the night."_

"Let _love conquer you mind. Warrior Warrior. Just reach out for the light. Warrior Warrior. I am a warrior, warrior_ _warrior I am a warrior, warrior of love. Underneath darkened skies, there's a lamp kept alight."_

" _Let_ _love conquer your mind. Warrior warrior. Just reach out for the light. I am a warrior, warrior_ _warrior I am a warrior, warrior warrior of love. Warrior of love Warrior of love."_

By the time she had finished singing, she somehow got the crowd to sing the chorus as well before they eventually faded out. She received a huge rousing around of applause as she left the stage, Lami coming up to hug me.

"You did great! Miss-san!" she giggled.

"I didn't you could sing so well." Mrs. Trafalgar smiled at me.

She blushed, putting a hand behind her back sheepishly. It really wasn't all that.

Suddenly, Lami began wincing in pain as she dropped, Mr. Trafalgar catching her. Her head lowered, eyes darkening.

It had begun.

Bodies were dropping to the ground like flies. White blotches covering their skin. People began vomiting and others were crying in agony, clawing at their skin until it bled. She at once ran to the hospital as fast as she could along with the Trafalgar's, slamming into women and bouncing off boys. Somewhere in the rush, she lost one of her shoes. But Miss didn't go back. It was just her luck that she lost the family in fray. Still, the current of people swarming to the hospitals led me to her destination.

She expected the hospitals to be packed but the reality was a lot worse. People were being trampled as they tried to squeeze past the metal gaze that began to creak at the weight of people. The courtyard was jammed pack with parents trying to get their children medical attention only to fall dead. She winced at all the people involuntarily touching me. It was obvious from the get go that Miss couldn't enter from the front. She sprinted around the back. She tossed the guitar that she didn't realize she was still holding to the ground and climbed the tree. Leaping down from the branch, she scrapped her knee, tearing her thigh highs in the process but she didn't care. Miss grabbed a rock and shattered the window, sticking her hand in and opening it from the outside. Sliding the window across she climbed inside the hospital.

It was a nightmare, gurneys were stacked with bodies as doctors and nurses ran about the halls in a frenzy, rolling medical equipment around. Papers fluttered about the place and she nearly slipped on them. Miss ran up the stairs, nearly tripping as she tried to remember which floor Dr. Trafalgar's office was located. She had jumped out the window and into a bush. What she had failed to notice earlier was that the bush was actually the top of a very dense tree. Speeding down the halls, she kept an eye out for any signs of the room she wanted. At the very end of the hall was Law rushing into a room, towels in his hand.

"Ah!" Miss exclaimed as she slid up to the door. She knocked and opened the door. "Excuse me….is this- "

Her question was interrupted by Law. "Miss-ya, thank goodness you're here. We need all the hands we can get. He yanked her into the room and explained the situation. She didn't tell him she already knew what was going on. Miss nodded with a firm look on her face.

" I'm assuming that it's not heavily contagious otherwise people without visble sypmtoms wouldn't be allowed in here to prevent possible spreading."

"Correct." Law assured coming closer. "It's hereditary, passed through blood lines. So, you're safe."

"Then. I'll help anyway I could! I haven't met you for long. But you've done so much for me. I can't watch and let you guys suffer. Think of my help as me paying for the hospital bill." she lightly joked.

This caused Mr. Trafalgar to cry out in gratitude. "Thank you so much. "

She shook my head. "There is no need. I'll do anything for the greatest doctor in the world." she looked at Law as she said this. Well we all know Chopper is the greatest, but she digressed.

.

.

.

The next few days were Miss watching Lami progressively get sicker and sicker. Her eyes were bloodshot, under was deep dark and sunken. More than half of her skin had turned milk white, as if she decided to go swimming in a pool of grade A bleach. Her body was wracked with pain, shallow breaths escaping her mouth as she tried to battle fever.

Law's skin turned whiter too, but not as fast as Lami's. Their parents showed signs of the illness as well, hair already turning white. Being surrounded by so much death, sickness and grief was starting

to drive Miss insane. She couldn't take this anymore. Judging by the way Law's eyes began to dull ever so slightly day by day…he had already begun to turn spiteful. Yet, he kept a calm demeanor in the front of his sister, smiling to make her think that he was alright.

An agitated grunt escaped Dr. Trafalgar. For the past few days, he had been trying to call the World Government Headquarters for help to no avail. They refused to assist them, ignoring the fact that the disease was not contagious. The man sighed, cleaning his glasses on his dirty lab coat.

"Ignored again?" Mrs. Trafalgar went over to her husband and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

He nodded solemnly before a long bang startled all of us. Miss ran to the window and gasped loudly. Hundreds of people had begun climbing the fences that the outside countries at put up. But on the other side of the fences where soldiers shooting everyone dead. Bombs flew everywhere, lighting the buildings on fire. A war had broken out.

She whipped around at the smashing of glasses and breaking of doors. Law's parents went outside to see what the matter was. It was then that fearing the worst, Law hid Lami inside the cabinet.

" Don't!" she shouted. Trying to deter him from starting the sequence of events that would get her killed. " What if you leave the hospital and can't reenter. Then Lami will be by herself."

"Stay with her then. She's too physically weak to leave the building. It would be devastating to her body."

" You're her brother, you can stay to comfort her while I go to get help." she argued

" If something happens and escape is needed, you're big enough to carry her safely and without strain." With that, he left not giving her a chance to counteract.

She felt Lami grip onto her vest and start crying. "I'm scared Miss-san! I don't want to die." She sobbed,

"Shush shush. It's okay. I'll protect you. Law's gonna come back to us." Miss sweetly lied to her.

Thin slivers of light seeped through the tiny slits between the cabinets. She couldn't see out of them and she didn't dare open it. Miss leaned back on some boxes, allowing Lami to lay on top of her and gently rubbed her head, singing a lullaby.

" _Let's_ _go to the garden, you'll find something waiting. Right there where you left it, lying upside down. When you finally find it, you'll see how it's faded. The underside is lighter when you turn it around. Everything stays. Right where you left it. Everything stays, but it still changes. Every so slightly, daily and nightly, in little ways, when everything stays…"_

Miss could soon hear Lami's faint shallow breaths. Miss wrapped her close in her arms, silently promising to protect her as best as she could. Whatever happened in the anime, she refused to allow it to happen now. Not while she had a chance to do something about it. Miss had long ago tossed away the thought that she was dreaming. Each passing day was becoming way too real for her. The screams, the gunshots. She could never imagine something as horrific as this, even with the help of foreign substances entering her body.

Miss didn't know she had fallen asleep, just that at some point her eyes became heavy and arms slid down to their sides. A smoky pungent smell had awoken her. A smelly smell a smell as if something was being cooked. The inside of the cabinet was warmer than usual, the light streaming in more orange than usual.

Oh no.

"Lami! We have to get out of here now!" Miss shouted as she grabbed the young girl and jumped out the cabinet to be met with the room completely on fire. Flames licked and danced at the curtains and bed sheet, turning them into ashes. She coughed, eyes watering at the heavy fumes produced. She pressed Lami's head a bit closer into my chest before trying to find the exit. She ran to the door, luckily the knob wasn't hot. She opened the door and dashed in the burning hallway just as the room completely burst into flames. There must have been a busted oxygen tank leaking out the gas, given the deafening noise and blinding light.

Lami screamed and cried, gripping on to her tighter. She had no time to comfort her, running through the collapsing building as she tried to find an exit that wasn't consumed by flames. It was so hot she began sweating, her grip on Lami slipping every now and then. Soon she had begun to slow down, a sharp pain stabbing her through the head as if it was being squeezed with a vice. Miss was taking too long to find an exit. If she didn't hurry up, the two of them would suffocate to death.

Suddenly, all the rooms started to burst into flames, as if it was a chain reaction, each explosion setting off another. Beams started to collapse, floors and ceilings caving in, trying to suck them under and sear their flesh off. She had no other choice. Miss ran towards the nearest window, speed accelerating and jumped through Lami screaming all the while.

Adrenaline was pumping through her body at this time, so she didn't even so much as wince as the shattered glass cut through her skin. Midair, she remembered her grave mistake. She had forgotten that they were on the fourth floor. Time slowed down. She turned, making sure her body would be the one to collide with the ground first and Lami on top of her. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Law kneeling in the front of the gate, bawling his eyes out, having a mental breakdown, because he thought Lami was dead.

"LAW!" she screamed as loud as she could, voice beginning to crack. "LAW! DON' T CRY! WE"RE HERE! WE'RE HE- " Her cry was abruptly cut off as her body contacted the gate. She screamed in agony as the hot iron bars burned her left arm and the left side of my face. She slid to the ground, battling pain induced unconsciousness. She had to find a way out of here.

She limped over to the front of the gate, shoving her back against it to open it. Miss's vest caught on fire and she briefly put Lami down to through it off. She picked her back up and made her way to the border, in the time that it took me to limp to the entrance, Law had already left. Great.

What was also great, but in the more positive sense was there were no guards there trying to shoot anyone down. She asked Lami to grip on to her as tightly as she could. She wrapped her arms around Miss completely and she was surprised she still had the strength to do so given the amount of stress that her body was undergoing. Miss gripped the fence and began to climb when she noticed the glint of a shot gun barrel pointing at her. No. She leapt over as fast as she could and began to run. Miss wasn't fast enough. Or rather, foolish enough to believe that she could escape. A bullet embedded itself to her shoulder, causing her to collapse and scream out in pain. It was indescribable. Her body fell on top of Lami's smothering her cries.

She heard the crunching of the ground beneath the officer's boots get louder and louder before it was right next to my head. Miss couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. The smoke was finally taking a toll on her. Miss could feel her grip on reality loosening as her body became heav-was suddenly kicked to the side. She rolled a few feet before stopping, wincing at the pebbles, dirt and rocks that made its way into her burnt flesh. Oh man were those going to scar. She watched helplessly as the soldier slammed his foot into Lami's back…and shoot her in the head. Her eyes widened but she couldn't find it in her to scream, only the image being burnt into her memory forever. Tears flooded her vision. Despite all what she went through to save her, she still died. Despite her efforts…Miss couldn't even finish the thought.

The barrel was pointing at me now. Miss didn't want to die.

With a yell, she rammed into the armed guard knocking him over. For the next few seconds it was a mess of kicking and flailing limbs. She elbowed him in the neck and he punched her the face. Somewhere in brawl, she knocked the gun out of his hands. When it flew, there was a mad scramble towards it. She arrived first as she wasn't weighed down by heavy armour. She grabbed the hot metal weapon, slipped her finger in the trigger and aimed it at him. Almost mindlessly she fired shots at him, bullet after bullet puncturing massive holes in his body.

" THIS IS FOR LAMI!" she screamed until the gun hollowedly clicked.

Then, the reality of what she did came rushing at once. She collapsed to her knees feeling suddenly weak and whole body shaking. She did it. She killed someone and their blood was now on her hands. She'd have to live with that mans life on her shoulders for the rest of her life...

Making sure that no one else was here, she slowly got up, trying not to vomit, and crawled away. Miss's mind was dull, so when she saw the mound of dead bodies, She wasn't fazed. Her body swayed, weak from the blood loss and she toppled on top of the bodies. She assumed the stench would be unbearable, but couldn't really smell much of anything. Or see. Or hear. Or feel. Her senses had been muted. The world was reduced to colors and blurry shapes and muffled sounds. She didn't want to close her eyes in fear that she would never open them again. But at this point, she didn't have a choice in the matter as her eyes slunk downwards.

.

.

.

Miss woke with a loud gasp and a scream, scrambling her way out of the limp arms and legs that entangled her. Big mistake. She lurched forward as it took everything in her not to grip at her burnt arm and face. Everything in her body ached. So sensitive she swore she could feel her veins and arteries pumping blood through her body. Fully aware of the atrocious scent surrounding she, I vomited, body painfully wracked with dry heaves.

After Miss's stomach settled, shakily, she stood up making her way towards the scrap heap agonizingly slow. Wherever there were mountains of scrap metal. There was the current base of the Donquioxte Pirates. Though, along her journey, she contemplated whether it was worth going to them. Miss was only going to get her ass kicked by Cora-san even though it was for protection. She didn't have the spite nor the hate that Law would have had by this point. It's not like she could prevent any of the future events from happening. Even if she intervened, it would end up the exact same way. This wasn't a fanfiction. This was real. Still, she needed somewhere to sleep. Someplace to eat. And the only place in a hundred miles was this accursed pirate crew.

Several hours passed before her agonizing crawl over mountains of scrap metal ended and she entered Spider Miles. She prayed to the heavens that tetanus didn't exist in the universe.

She knelt at the stairs leading up to the door of the building and grimaced. She had developed a distaste for the jagged inclined plane recently. Regardless, she gripped at the rail with her good arm and hoisted herself upwards. Sluggishly put one foot in front of the other. And there were three sets? Good grief. Nonetheless she climbed the steps anyway. Along the path, she stopped, the most random yet sensible question crossing her mind.

_Shouldn't I be dead?_

Miss had been inhaling smoke and fumes like a line of cocaine. She was sliced by glass was beaten silly. Half her face and her arm had been burnt. Her wounds were still more or less still open yet she's semi casually climbing three flights of stairs. Miss was sure that as soon as she opened that door, she would meet a giant hand grabbing her face and tossing her 50 meters in the air. Well, considering she's in the world of One Piecem-the thought of this being a drug induced dream already tossed away- she guessed her body had strengthened to adapt to the brutal punishment this world offered.

Before she knew it, she was at the top of the stair case. Miss braced herself, forcing her face to turn into the most hate filled glare she could muster….it cracked after two seconds. She couldn't do this so she second for second best. A face that seemed more natural. Her resting face. She was told that when she had my resting face, she looked like she wanted to murder somebody. So, it should suffice.

Miss opened the door and all heads turned towards her. The pirates were eating, Law standing at the end of the table. She remembered this scene from the anime. It seemed by this time, he had already been accepted into the crew, judging by the amused look on Doflamingo's face.

"Oi. Who the hell are you?! "Diamante shouted at Miss, his ribbon sword swerving around the table, the tip pointing at her throat.

Somehow, she managed not to flinch. Instead, intensify her glare, a low growl escaping her throat.

"I asked again. Who the hell are you?! Answer me before I slice you to pieces!" He shouted, standing up, knocking his chair backwards. Mackvise put a hand to his shoulder, trying to calm the irritated gladiator down.

Miss sighed and raised her non-burnt hand and pushed the tip of his blade away. "A girl who should be dead." She lifted her head up to show her eyes, sharp and glaring.

"Then go die then." Baby 5 snickered, Miss directed a nasty glare towards her that caused her to cry.

"What the hell are you doing here? I thought you burnt to death in that hospital with Lami. If you're here, where is she?" Law whipped around a demanding tone in his voice.

Miss clenched her fists voice wringing hollow as she was reminded of what she did. " We escaped the hospital, I tried calling out to you but you couldn't hear me. We almost made it out the city but a guard blocked the path. He killed Lami...so I killed him..."

"I see…" he was barely restraining his anger, teeth clenching together. Whether it was towards Miss for surviving or towards the guards for killing his sister she couldn't tell.

"Law. Who is this girl you seem you know her." The pink feathered man directed his fork at Miss.

" Someone from the city." He glared at her.

Miss's glare didn't falter as she stepped closer inside, slamming the door behind her.

"Hmmm I see. Why are you here? Little girl." He sliced through his steak, putting a piece in his mouth, chewing it slowly before he swallowed.

"I'm 18." she stated flatly. If this was an anime, a sweat drop would be hanging from her head.

"Wow. You're short-desayan!" Buffalo laughed.

"And so, will be your life expectancy if you make fun of my height again- _desayan!"_ she mocked his ending phrase with a threatening tone, spooking him.

Doflamingo chuckled, "Such guts to threaten a member of my family. So, tell me. What do you want?" 

"I want to join your crew." was her short answer as she gripped her chest. She mentally widened her eyes at what was in her breast pocket. That would be her ticket in.

"Why should I choose for you to be in my crew?" he titled his head, curious

"Because your crew already chose me." She answered, a grin on her face as she pulled the pendant out of her pocket, the chain with the Donquioxte emblem swinging slightly back and forth in her grip

She could see a vein pulse in Doflamingo's forehead. "Where did you get that? I don't remember any thing being created with my Jolly Rodger on it."

"Found it in my attic." she tossed the pendant at the pink pirate.

He twirled it in his fingers before tossing it back at me. "I'm intrigued. What exactly do you have to offer me?"

What did she have to offer him? Nothing. She wasn't physically strong nor rediculously intellegient. She had no powerful fruit. Her only advantage was knowledge of future events and there was no way in hell she was going to let Doflamingo know about that. Still, she had to think of something.

"I have nothing and no place on this horrible planet. I wasn't made for this world and this world certainly wasn't made for me. What do you do when you've been handed something that ultimately has no use to you...you destroy it. Completely demolish it and right in front of the people who even dare think to mock to you like that." shw titled her head back slightly a smug look on my face. "Joining this crew is either a one way ticket to hell or glory...I'm interested to see where it goes. But most importantly I want to be the one who gets to say I watched a King storm the world."

The oldest crewmembers, who up until that sentence ignored me had suddenly whipped their heads towards my direction. Doflamingo sat forward from his leaned back position.

"I can sense it around you...Doflamingo. A powerful aura. One worthy of a King. A King that deserves to have what he wants when he wants and how he wants it. A king who should have the world bowing down before him…I want to see you reach that."

"Put it on." Doflamingo suddenly instructed her. "The pendant. It has my Jolly Rodger on it. Making it mine. It chose you. Making you mine as well."

She forced a grateful smile on her lips. She put it on, bowing into a curtesy. "Thank you. I am honored." she added to boost his ego.

This action caused Doflamingo to laugh aloud, slamming his fist on the table. "I can see you will make this crew prosper."

Suddenly, a hand was on her head and she turned to see Corazon, that 10 ft giant of a man hovering above her. He lifted her up and she found herself flying through glass, soaring through the air for several seconds before roughly landing in a pile of pipes. Sweet Mother of Pearl. That hurt. It took several minutes for her to muster the strength to pick herself up from the ground. Surprisingly, none of her bones had been broken in the collision. Still, she limped back up the steps and pushed the door open

" Oh look. She's not dead!" Baby 5 laughed once the opened the door again.

" I'm not so weak that I'd die from that." Slightly annoyed yet understanding why Baby would think a cinnimon stick like Miss wouldn't get their spine snapped in half from a landing of that height.

"So…what is your name?" Senor Pink asked, letting out a puff of smoke from his cigarrete.

Miss was never going to give them her real name. She looked at Law and she looked at herself. It didn't take much thought for her to choose her name. Her brother did say she had a sense of humor so awful it was great. Even though no one here would get the reference, she smiled crazily anyway as she skipped over to Doflamingo and whispered her faux name into his ear. He grinned.

Miss skipped back to where she previously stood, a smile stretching from ear to ear as Doflamingo stood up, slammed a foot on the table and raised a wine glass.

" My family….let us welcome the two new members of our crew Law and Order!"


	2. Rough Integration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are a little bit rocky between Law and Order.

Order's success in joining the crew was short lived as the force that kept her from caving in on her injuries began to fade away. She clenched her teeth in pain, muscles tensing though that seemed to worsen the situation. Gladius noticed how her body began shaking and her increasing breaths. However, he didn't mention anything about it. 

"Are you okay?" asked Baby 5 as she titled her head, shoving carrots into her mouth.

" No actually." Order wasn't sure when the words left her mouth. Everything was starting to become blurry, the corner of her vision slowly turning gray begore completely darkening.

Order's knees suddenly buckled beneather her and she collapsed to the ground. She used her arms to steady herself as she tried to push herself off the floor, but her elbows were starting to weaken. She started coughing, her body racking with dry coughs that clawed her throat dry. A wet gurgling sound came from her throat as she hacked up a glob of blood. Metal filled her mouth and invaded her nostrils.

"Hnngh…looks like the adrenaline is wearing off." She gave a grim chuckle with red stained teeth before completely passing out.

Order opened her eyes and she could see nothing.

"...what…?" She groaned, squinting at the light pouring directly into her pupil, only the right side of her face seemed to register it.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Law asked, a serious tone in his voice as he raised his left hand.

" I can't tell. My vision is too blurry to make sense of anything." she groaned, squinting away the massive headache that came without visionary aid.

" Hmm and here I thought that your vision would be obstructed with those pieces plastic stuck to your eyeballs. I took them out as well as other things like rocks that got stuck to you when I was treating your injuries

"...pieces of...oh!" she exclaimed " My contacts. No no no. They actually help me see. Well _used_ to since you threw them away. Now the world looks like a giant smear."

"Contacts?" Law raised an eyebrow

" Substitues for glasses." she explained " They're made of this special type of plastic that can be cut into the same prescription of regular glasses all without the inconviences of having the frames." 

" Hmm and how bad is your vision without them. This is a liability."

" I basically have no vision."

Merely scoffing, jumping off the chair he was sitting on with a huff Law left. Order heard a door slam and the muffled noise of a conversation. As this was happening, she vainly scrolled her eyes about to see where the heck she was. Naturally, she had limited range in her vision, only able to generally see the area where Law previously sat and then some. Her body was confined to laying on her back, unable to roll about. The door opened again, and a swirl of pink feathers entered her vision. Doflamingo.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, a slight frown on his face.

"…Like I was slap chopped through time and space...also very blind" she groaned, just now realizing how much her body ached and throbbed. And the way the world warped around her. It felt like she was flying, soaring through the air at dizzying breakneck speeds while at the same time, the weight of every bad decision she ever made sitting in her stomach like a stone.

This pulled a little chuckle out of Doflamingo. "What an interesting description of major blood loss and bacterial infection "

" Ah. That explains a lot."

This drew out another chuckle. "Do not worry. The worst of the symptoms have passed. You are in the recovery stage."

She blinked. "How long was I out. I feel like I'm in an anti gravity chamber."

"About three days." He answered casually. "Is there something wrong?" he asked, slightly concerned as his lips pulled downwards.

"It is nothing." I gave a sheepish smile. "Just a massive headache."

"Hmm. Very well then. I wish a speedy recovery. The other family members wish to know you better. They've never seen quite a character like you. It is mainly arrogant, sarcastic people that feel they can getaway with anything that they like. Barging in with smug smirks as they wave about what makes them so special when in reality it's a masked used to hide how pathetic they are." Doflamingo sounded genuinely annoyed, a vein bulging in his forehead.

"…are you speaking about those that tried to join your crew? And either wimped out or were kicked out?"

"You catch on quite quickly. Sharp understanding is needed in a crew like mine."

She gave a nod. "Thank you. Mister Doflamingo."

"Please. You're a part of the family. Call me Doffy." The future Warlord put a hand on her shoulder.

She shook her head. "...Just Doflamingo then. I do not feel like a part of the family and wish to remain on at least semi-formal terms. Respectful to my superiors if you will. Perhaps if I become more comfortable around the other members and yourself, I may take you up on your offer."

"Do what you must. Just be mindful of your current position." Doflamingo answered, give a trace of a warning that she immediately plucked out.

Order nodded her head. "Thank you, Doflamingo." 

Doflamingo simply nodded, eyeing me several times, silent for the first time since he entered. Eventually, she couldn't keep up and drifted into a light sleep. For five seconds. A harsh slap was delivered to her arm and she jolted awake, alarmed for several seconds before slipping to her previous state. Order turned her head to look at the person who hit her and distinct white and black smears appeared.

"Here. This will finally kill off the bacteria." Law held his hand outstretched. In one was a glass of water and in the other was a napkin. Sitting in the napkin were three pills. One was small and circular and red. Another was long and ovular and white. The last one was a small yellow rounded rectangle.

Order groaned. By the milky way she hated taking medication. Especially pills. The way the corners scraped against her throat and the feeling of a stone sitting in her chest were sensations she did not particularly enjoy. They smelt awful, making the bile rise in the back of my throat. And the way some of them dissolved. She mentally shuddered, though she was sure some of it was transmitted into the physical realm.

"Looks like we have one of _those_ patients." Law looked at her in annoyance, birthing a long deep sigh, he said "I do not have time to, nor will I fight you." He gave a quick nod.

This must have been some sort of que for a conversation Order wasn't present for. Doflamingo roughly sat her up, wrapping her tightly in strings. Order's eyes widened as she realized what they were going to do. Against her better judgement, she began to struggle, trying to break free from the cords. She gave grunts of complaint, firmly locking my mouth shut.

"Resistance is futile." Law climbed on top of the bed, spandex gloves covering his hands. He crept closer to her face and tried to pry her jaws apart. He forced his thumbs into her mouth, jaws opening against her will. She felt something thing rubbing against my cheek and realized Doflamingo was using his devil fruit to pry her jaws further.

"I was just going to horseback them you know...no need for the strings..." She pounded my fist with my chest after she swallowed them.

She didn't receive an answer. One huffed while the other made no noise.

"Sleep." Law demanded as they light flicked off and the door shut behind him and Doflamingo.

She blinked in the darkness, coughing once more before they died down completely. And sunk back into the covers, my aching body craving for me to slide into a more comfortable position. On her left-ow! She winced as she hastily rolled to my right side. Order gripped at her left arm and noticed it was covered in bandages. Oh yeah. It was burnt on that gate along with some of her face. Oh…those will most definitely scar. She sighed, snuggling further into the sheets, trying to get as comfortable as she could without further irritating her wounds. Forcing those pills had fully awakened her and now all the thoughts she had previously stuffed down was bubbling to the surface. She tried to stuff them down. Order didn't want to think about it. She didn't want to think of the dead people and the destroyed buildings and the selfishness of the World Government and how she failed Lami. Or how she killed that guard. She left Law without the last member of his family and he hated her.

She understood though and didn't blame the 10-year-old at all. She'd be pissed too if she left him in charge of Yanai and he came out of a burning building without her little brother. Speaking of, she missed him and wondered what he was doing now. She sighed again, pretending to sleep in order to force herself to actually fall asleep. Soon, she found her eyes fluttering again as she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

.

.

.

.

"I'M GONNA BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!" Order shouted, bolting upright as. Her quickened breaths slowed down as she looked about the room, remembering where she was. Right. She was the newest crewmember of a soon to be notorious pirate crew.

Order flopped back with a groan, resting the back of her bandaged hand on her forehead. Thumps increasing in volume infiltrated her hearing range. The knob turned, door creaking as Law pushed himself inside. Baby 5 and Doflamingo trailed behind him, the former holding a tray. On it were bread, soup, a glass of water and a syringe next to a bottle of clear fluids.

"Glad to see that you're up." Doflamingo gave a low chuckle.

"Did you sleep well? I heard shouting…" Doflamingo frowned slightly, letting his sentence trail, obviously expecting me to complete the thought.

" ..not quite. But it's fine. Really. I temporarily forgot I was a pirate now and not some highschool senior. What a waste of time and beli..."

Ow! Order exclaimed feeling a sharp pinch in her arm.

Law was injecting her with the clear fluid in the bottle.

"You had no need to make the effort to distract me Doflamingo. I am not afraid of needles." she felt Law plaster a bandage on the injection site.

"She should be set." Law told Doflamingo before looking at me, hate evident.

" When can I leave this bed? I feel my legs might decide to mutiny against me and walk off on its own."

" When you have the strenght to walk without crashing to your needs." Law said. " And the ability to see."

" How can I test that if I can't walk." she challenged kicking her legs over the bed.

" You may not be able to feel it but your legs are still quaking from extreme muscle exhaustion. Regardless I am the doctor here. Not you." He glared.

"Fine." she scoffed

Doflamingo shoved a box into Order's hand. The contents inside rattling. " In here are some of Lao G's old glasses. You can try them on to see which ones help you best until we can take you to a professional."

"I'm sure you are hungry and want a bath, so I sent Baby 5 to ask Giolla to prepare some food for you. Also, I took it upon myself to buy some clothes and basic toiletries for you. After this, you must buy your own things with your own money. We house a family of dangerous pirates. Not freeloaders." The pink feathered pirate handed her a bag full of clothes and other things, gesturing to the soup that had now turned cold.

"I need you to heat that up when Order is ready." Doflamingo briefly turned to the raven-haired girl who squealed at being needed. She rapidly nodded her head and took the tray, rushing down the stairs.

"Due to the unexpected number of new recruits, namely you and Law, we don't have enough space. Therefore, until we expand the building or get a permanent ship, you two must share a room." Doflamingo looked between Order and Law.

"WHAT _?!_ " Law shrieked angrily. "I'd rather lob off an arm than share a room with _her!"_ He spat, venom dripping heavily from his voice.

"Stop being over dramatic." Doflamingo folded his arms, though he was quite amused at Law's actions.

I could tell Law didn't want to present himself as a whiny brat, so he bit off whatever else he had to say. "Fine."

"Good. But let me make this clear." Doflamingo said "You two WILL share this room. Whether you like it or not. We are a family now and nothing good comes out of infighting. Whatever problem it is that you two have, I strongly suggest that you two solve it as fast you as possibly can. Your hesitance to tolerate each other will eventually become a liability in the face of battle. And it is one I'd rather avoid if I could help it. And I can. And will. Law, show Order to the bath." With that, he left the room, his coat of pink feathers flailing behind him.

The room was silent, the only sound was the rhythmic tick tock of the clock hanging from the wall. After a moment, the daggers Law was glaring in Order's back started to physically manifest.

"...ugh...this sucks..." Order muttered under her breath.

"Shut up." He instantly snapped with a hiss, cutting her off.

" You shut up. I wasn't even talking to you."

Order's mouth was sealed after that, and after another moment of unfathomable silence, he asked her, well more like demanded "Why did you come join this crew. You didn't and still don't seem to be the type to willingly join people like them."

" It's none of your damn business." Order ended the conversation there before it even began. She didn't currently have the mental capacity to stir up even a half constructed lie.

"Are you gonna betray him? Bring him down? I'll report you immediately." Law threatened.

"No." She flatly stated. "I could only do what I want here. Why would I jeopardize myself by jeopardizing Doflamingo? That's stupid as hell. Even if a possible betrayal at the end, crew activties could still be linked back to me and I'd get in trouble and loose what I worked for. "

"How do I know you're not bullshitting me." he grits his teeth and balled his fist. "Whatever. What you say doesn't matter to me. I hate you. If it wasn't for the Blood Law, and Doffy literally breathing down my neck, I would have let you die. It should have been you not Lami."

"I know. I agree. But I'm here and she's not and we both have to deal with it. " Order was not in the mood for this conversation.

" Both?! " He exclaimed half-incredulously, half-furious and launched from his side of the bed over to mine. " She was MY sister NOT yours!" He spat in my face.

" Then YOU should have taken repsonsiblity for her like I told you to!" She abprutply stood up, not knowing she was directly towering over him. "Instead YOU left YOUR sister with me a complete STRANGER. YOU shoved the repsonsiblity of her saftey on ME. And I had to watch her brains get blown out because YOU were too stubborn to listen. Her life is on my hands. I have to live with the memory of her getting killed every day and that's completely YOUR fault." She shoved him against the wall.

He went silent after that, readjusting his hat then leaving the room.

Suddenly all the energy left her body. She'd never spoken to anyone like that before. But what he said stung too. Of course, she had been told worse, but coming from a supposedly fictional character, made it all the more worse. This showed me just how _real_ he and the others are. They had their own thoughts, and feelings and ideas outside of what Oda had set in stone for them. It made her feel worse about Lami's death. The auburn-haired child probably had her own dreams and ambitions as well. Goals that she wanted to achieve will never be achieved. What once was a simple background character to her was now a real human that she could have prevented the death of. She may not have outright killed her, but Lami's blood was on her hands. Holding her hands in the front of her, Order stared at them. Fingers wrapped in bandages covering the skin. The longer she absently stared at the the longer she felt disconneted from her body.

" Guess I'll have to find the bathroom myself..." She dug her hands in the box. " But first I need to find a decent pair of glasses."

It took a minute to find glasses that weren't either too weak or too strong or ones that weren't to big for her face or ones that made her head hurt after staring through them for a couple seconds. At last she settled on a pair close but not quite. Order's vision was still slightly fuzzy but at least she could get around without much of a problem. 

Clutching the bag of clothes, she started down the hallway. Various rooms were lined one after the other with a single room sitting at the end of the hall a golden knob on this one while silver knobs where on the other. It was obvious who that room belonged to. She took the only right in that hall and stopped at a door that was slightly ajar. Turning back towards the bathroom door, she pushed it open and raised an eyebrow, surprised out how…normal it seemed. She was expecting something old and rickety like a wooden tub given the state of this place. Or something grand because while on the outside this place looked like a rundown shack on the inside it was fairly nice. Plus, Doflamingo seemed like he was a little bit extra. Actually...she didn't know what to expect. On the back wall was the tub, faucet and shower head. A cream bathroom rug in the front of it. A toilet was on the side of the tub, a cream rug in the front of that as well. On the bathroom vanity, which was on the right wall, was a built-in sink and near the handles was a soap pump. There were four toothbrush holders labeled: Baby 5, Buffalo, Law and Order respectively. Seemed like the adults had bathrooms in their rooms. On the left side was a towel rack, several towels hanging already. A space left for her. The towels themselves were labeled, initials written in marker on the tags. Small bathing towels were no exception

Locking the door, she dug through the things in the bag. Towels, a toothbrush, a bar of deodorant and some clothes. The pirate captain wasn't kidding around when he said he got the bare minimum of stuff. With a sigh, she set her things on the toilet seat and took off the clothes she was wearing, tossing them in the garbage. They were shredded to bits and beyound repair now. Slowly, she peeled the bandages on her arm off, wincing slightly as the tiny tinge of pain and the sticky ripping sound that it made..

Tossing the soiled bandages away, she looked at my arm. The burns were an angry red color, three wide diagonal bars lined one after the other. They were shimmery with sweat and slightly bled. Gingerly, she touched one of the bars, but her cold fingertips were welcomed by the irritated area. Even more gingerly, she took the bandages off her face. Two diagonal bars stretched from a little beyond her left cheek, over her left eye and a little above it, effectively erasing the freckles that resided in that spot. It was just as angry as her arm and bled slightly as well. She couldn't open her eye and had become worried whether or not she was legitimately wasn't able to open the eye, or the lid was too sore and weak for her to gain control of.

Twisting the handle, Order adjusted the water to temperature to where she wanted and wouldn't aggravate her skin and plugged up the tub. She felt metal rub against my bare chest realized the pendant was still around my neck.

Order didn't take it off.

A loud relieved sigh escaped her lips as she sunk into the lukewarm water. The cleansing fluid washed over her, shooing away the surface dirt that clung to her body. Containing her giddiness about how relaxing it was, she scooped handfuls of water and splashed it all over herself. Leaning over, she grabbed the gray bathing towel provided to her and rubbed soap all over it until it lathered. She rubbed the gentle solute all over her, creamy rich lather smooth on her as she spread it all over, careful with the burns, ever so slightly cleaning the area round them. She soaked for a while before deciding that it was time to rinse off. She stood up and unplugged the sink, pulling the nozzle on the faucet to convert it to shower mode.

Order hummed aimlessly, not noticing that the temperature of the water gradually seemed to increase. Strange. It was at the same position as she originally had it. She winced slightly, it was starting to burn. Order grabbed the handle and immediately turned it to the hard-cold side. The temperature did not subdue. She switched it to the other side, but nothing seemed to stop it. Her burns were screaming at her. 

"AHHH!" she yelped as the water became its hottest and she immediately shut the water off, skin throbbing at the unwanted heat. At least she was clean.

She dried off carefully and put on the burn cream and bandages that were in the medicine cabinet and put on the clothes Doflamingo provided for her. She had on a black turtle necked long-sleeved sweater and white shorts that unsurprisingly, refused to stretch beyond her knee. Stubbornly stopping halfway down her thigh. And with how big the turtle neck was on her, even though the tag said medium, it gave the impression she wasn't wearing pants at all when shifted a certain way. Order opened the door and looked down to see a Law, smiling evilly at her. What did he do?

"How was your bath. _Order-ya._ " He cooed evilly. That look was unmistakable. He was the reason the water began to get hot and stay at that temperature. He must have fiddled with the pipes. He was trying to hurt her without breaking the Blood Law and angering the other members. 

" Great actually. I love searing hot water. Perfect for blasting off germs and dead skin." Order made herself seem unbothered. "What's even more perfect is that instead of thinking about the truth of what I said to you, you decide to hurt me. So you know what. I decide to disregard your feelings and be petty too."

Normally, Order wouldn't condone taking revenge. She'd rather breaking conflict instead of cause them. But this. Oh heck no. She wasn't angry, just mildly annoyed and itchy in her burn spots. Order wasn't taking this standing down. Doflamingo asked them to get along. This was the complete opposite. But she intended to correct that.

Law might have been more hardened and jaded than a normal ten-year-old, but he was still ten and there were childish aspects of him that had not been smothered out. And that childishness is what she intended to work with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Stealth Freakies- a feeling that comes before dead i.e. when you just feel a little bit sick before you realize that anything is wrong, or that your whole life is about to change for the worse or something else equally bad. "- Sixth Grade, Gloomers Norks and Me
> 
> Looks like Law initiated some kind of war. What do you think is going to happen? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z- Useless but Try Anyway! Don't forget to leave a review. They are my motivation! Don't forget to follow either so you'll be alerted every time I update!


	3. Challenge Accepted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nani?! A prank war?!

Wails escaped Order's stomach and dragged her out of her musings. It was no question that she was pretty much starving at that point. When was the last time she ate anyway?

While she _could_ ask the other crew members to direct her to the kitchen, she'd rather not. She didn't feel comfortable just casually talking to them yet. Besides, even if she did ask, they'd probably say something along the lines of "You have a brain, right? Figure that out yourself." Or something of similar nature. But what was she? A dad? It wasn't a sin to ask for directions.

She made her way back to the room and opened the door. Its hinges squealed as loud as an elephant who stubbed its toe on the corner of a wooden table while trying to flee from a hoard of mice. She winced, flinched and sucked in a sharp hiss at the wretched noise. Sinking down in her half of the bed, she rested her face into the palms of her hand.

_' What am I going to do?'_

_' I came into this world accidentally but decided to push through guns a-blazing. No doubt I dug myself into a hole so deep that if the hole were to be raised above ground it would be as tall as the Empire State Building. The moment I realized I was stuck in this chaotic world, I should have immediately tried to find a way to escape, knowing everything would have eventually be sorted out._

Order raised a hand in the air, reaching towards the ceiling and just stared at it for a couple seconds before closing her hand into a fist.

_'No. I can't question my questionable decisions now. That would have to wait for later. Right now, I have to deal with the hand I dealt myself and play the game with what I have.'_

Order's stomach rolled again, and she grimaced in response, shuffling off the bed. Soup first. Though trial and error, she made her way to the kitchen…just in time to see Law pour her food down the sink. He stared at her. Surprise prevented her from saying anything the first ten seconds.

"Thanks. I wasn't hungry anyway." she said flaty hiding the waver in my voice.

Law just stood there, a scathing look rather than that smug looking smirk he is usually known for. He didn't say anything for a few seconds more before shoving past her. The slam of the front door indicated that he went outside. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Order opened in the fridge door and scanned over its…strange contents. She ended up having to make a sandwich considering that more that half of the items in the fridge, she did not know what they were. It was a safer option that cooking an unknown food item wrong and poisoning herself. Admittedly, it tasted awful, but she would rather eat that than plain dry bread.

Opening the front door, Order went outside for the first time in three days. Upon the sun's rays beating against her pupils, Order's eyes immediately, and for the most part involuntarily squinted shut until they adjusted accordingly. She blinked a couple times before leaning over the railing, a little way away from Doflamingo who was smiling down at his 'family'. Diamante and Trebol were cackling down at Law who was attacking the former with a sword twice his height. The future gladiator blocked each strike with ease, causing the last survivor of Flevance to become angrier with each refutation, fueling the older men's laughter further. Gladius was blowing up piles of scrap metal while Lao G leapt in the air and kicked them into different directions. Machvise, who suddenly appeared as a blip in the sky grew bigger and bigger before flattening other piles of metal beneath his body. Rolling off the metallic pancake, the ton ton man tossed it to Giolla like a frisbee, who turned into some sort of weird sculpture that was unsurprisingly hideous. Of course, Order wasn't going to tell her that. No one was. Dellinger, the one-year old human fishman hybrid waddled after the orange haired woman and clamped his sharp teeth on the sculpture, cracking it but not completely shattering it. Nevertheless, the baby looked happy with his accomplishment and clapped his hands excitedly. The art art fruit user humored him and clapped her hands as well, praising him for what he had done. Baby 5 and Buffalo were nowhere to be found, probably terrorizing the local kids.

"How are you feeling?" a deep voice suddenly asked.

Order jumped up, skeleton nearly tearing out from her skin from surprise. 

"Geez. You nearly scared me half to death." she said shakily.

The sadistic pirate captain gave a low chuckle. "Now that would be most unfortunate wouldn't it."

"Very." she stared at him, voice now stable.

An uncomfortable silence crawled between the two of them and Order found herself internally sweating. However, that worked. She could feel him analyzing her, criticizing her and digging for clues to expose me as the phony she was. Or, could that deadly aura be emanating from Law, whom she noticed through her peripheral vision had begun trying to stab me with that piercing glare that she should learn to be accustomed to? Either way, she was not in a position that she liked and had begun to slip away from the railing when Doflamingo called my name, forcing me to freeze in the place.

"Yes?" she answered sweetly.

"If there's any problem with any of the other family members harassing you or treating up in an ill manner, do not be afraid to tell me."

"But…why?"

Doflamingo simply laughed at me. "Don't think you're anything special now. I do this with any female members. Despite how tough they appear, they all tend to be much softer emotionally. So, until they learn to solidify and stand on their own, I'll protect my family members."

Order inaudibly gulped and gave an understanding nod. Internally, she reviewed his words. From the sound of it, it seems like he might already be building his army to take over DressRosa 13 years in the future.

"Order. Even though I do this will all new female members, I never tell them to come to me. They usually go to another head." The pirate captain said to me, the corners of his mouth tilted downwards in a frown.

"Why my exemption?" she pointed a finger to herself, raising a brow slightly.

Doflamingo, whom she didn't even notice had drawn closer to her, stepped back and turned with his back facing her. His hands were clasped behind him. "Don't think I haven't noticed you and Law's interactions. I don't know what happened between the two of you, nor do I care. But I do not condone blatant acts of disrespect towards superiors. Plus…you were chosen especially for me. I can't have things that belong to me be treated poorly, now can I? That being said, come to me. On the other hand, I need you to be more assertive. Assert more dominance. Do not let anyone walk over you, do what you must without breaking the Blood Law. Are we clear?"

"Crystal."

"Good."

With that, Doflamingo launched his strings into the air, latching onto the thick clouds and swinging off like Spiderman until he became a dot on the horizon, leaving Order feeling unsettled. He said that she was just one of his things. The implication that he might have already started building his army was not good either. Regardless, what had the world tilting wasn't what he said, but rather how he said it. He said it with the gentleness of a loving father, filled with warmth and lined with promises of protection. His voice was soft and velvety, with the ability to lure in any sucker who wasn't aware of the pirate captain's true sadistic nature.

Yet, despite this knowledge, her brain still crashed under the weight of reality. It was trying to compute a kindness that did not exist in Doflamingo. He only cared about himself and would not hesitate to shoot anyone that gets in his way. Even his own blood relative his nothing more than an annoying stain to him.

Order shook her head to rattle herself out of her spiral. She should be rejoicing, shouldn't she? That she didn't have to work so hard to get on his good side and it lessens the chance of getting a bullet to the brain. Before her…transfer into this world, she had already known that these weren't your typical run of the mill cookie cutter characters. But knowing that these are real life people…she was still having difficulties wrapping her mind around the realness of it all. Seeing is not always believing. She couldn't let her lingering doubts stop her from fulfilling her goals. Whatever warped dimension or universe Order was in, the fact of the matter is that it was real, and she had to act accordingly. Right now, her first goal was to get back at Law and get the rest of the crew to trust her. As she turned around to go to her room and think of some…. behavior rectifying techniques…. yes. That was better than saying pranks. As she turned to form them, she felt a powerful aura seeping through the cracks of the door. Order froze in her spot, dreading who was behind it. The brass knob jiggled and clicked, the glued wooden planks swinging open, revealing an 8ft giant with a black feathered coat hanging from his broad shoulders looming in the threshold.

Before Order could utter a single syllable, a large hand enveloped her face. He raised arm, reared it back, and flung her with all his might. Order's insides lurched as wind flew through her hair. The flight upwards wasn't so bad as was the plummet downwards. As she felt my body drop like a bowling ball, Order prayed to the sweet heavens that she would land somewhere relatively soft in this yard of rejected mechanical parts. The ground came in hot and fast. Way too fast. In the blur, she saw that my apparent landing pad was an all too familiar teal blob who remained oblivious to his fate.

"Move!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, trying to save the both of them from an unpleasant experience.

He did not move. Either he did not hear her or was confused about hearing a voice shouting at him rudely seemingly out of nowhere.

Black grew on top of the blob and a stick protruded from one side of it. Trebol became more defined as was the reality that he'd soon be a washable stain on the floor and she'd be sitting in a pile of living slime. Order tried one more time to warn him, but it was too late. Her warning was abruptly cut short as her skull collided with his, _painfully._ The rest of her sunk into him just as swiftly. The slime was thick, chocking off her oxygen supply. She dared not to open her eyes or her mouth. Rancid mucus filled her nasal cavity and slid down the back of her throat. She thanked everything that none touched her tongue. White began to fill the space between her eyelid and eye balls.

Multiple stars, black and twinkling danced the ballet in the background as she grew light headed and her lungs _burned_ , craving for oxygen that she was not receiving. Order pushed against Trebol, trying to push her head out of the mucus but only succeeded in lodging herself further in, trapping her hands. She could tell when she tried to flex my fingers, but nothing happened. On the outside, Order could barely hear the faint, muffled sounds of shouting crew members. Her body shook in a way she could only assume was Trebol failing about in shock and panic. The burning in her lungs increased tenfold and the instinct to survive took over. She kicked her legs furiously and wiggled rapidly, hoping that they got her message. A pair of hands wrapped tightly around her ankles and pulled, liberating Order from her semi solid prison.

The moment Order was free she vomited, hacking and coughing as the mucus and acid poured out of her mouth. SHe drew in air in large ragged breaths, shaking as she crawled on the ground, clutching her midsection. The putrid smell assaulted her nostril activating my gag reflex, but she forcefully stopped herself from potentially emptying the first meal she had in three days. Settling down, she finally opened my eyes and saw, hovering above her was a pissed Trebol, an amused Diamante and a blank faced Law.

"Ne! Ne! What the hell was that for?!" asked Trebol angrily.

"Corazon." she answered and left it at that.

Order's answer seemed to placate him as his built-up face loosened and he stretched a hand out. The mucus covering her slid off and crawled back towards him. Diamante let out a laugh as he lifted me to my feet. "Well that must have been quite an experience."

"One that I prefer not to have again." By this time, she caught her breath. As she was standing, she couldn't help but to glance at Law, who turned his head away from her.

"What the hell happened here?" asked Gladius as he strode near, casually twirling a rusted metal pipe in his left hand as he, Machvise, Giolla and Dellinger came over to see the commotion as well.

"Corazon." she answered swiftly, hoping to shut the conversation down and move on.

"Ah." Machvise said.

"It's almost time for lunch. I'm going to find Baby 5 and Buffalo. I'd rather not find that they'd been sold into slavery. Again." Gladius huffed as he began to turn around.

"Again?" she tilted my head.

"It's…a long story." The explosive expert seemed to sigh through his mask.

"May I come? I'd like to get a better map of my surroundings."

He made no verbal indication of acceptance, but he did motion me towards his side with his hand. She quickly toddled over to where he was, and he fully turned around and began walking away. Their trip to the town was silent, only the soft clacking to stones and pebbles she shifted with her foot filled the space between them. They passed a sign that showed they were leaving Spider Miles. Not long after, they arrived at their location. Stopping before the entrance, Gladius turned to Order.

"We'll split up to find them quicker. Then meet up in an hour, regardless of who we find."

Order nodded and followed him into the town. Instantly, her senses were bombarded with different sights, smells and sounds that had left her disoriented at first. A blur of colors and shapes that moved back and forth, minding their own business. A cacophony of noises funneled into her ears. The shouts of vendors, the shrieks of children and the idle chatter of townsfolks were only a sample of the noises she was witnessed to. Wind blowing from the shout pushed aromatic smoke up her nostrils: earthy spices, seasoned meats and the perfume like sweetness of tropical fruit.

Having no idea where or how to start looking for the duo, she simply began strolling through the town, scanning for stands in which the kids might have been interested in. She looked around for a while and so far, there were no signs of a buck toothed, overall wearing boy or orange ribboned, needy, maid outfit wearing girl. Her range of perception was being stretched thin, all senses stretching as far as it out go to cover more areas as she slipped through bustling islanders carrying 3 to 4 bags in each hand; women's husbands were carrying 5-6 more bags in their arms. Stray dogs and cats hissed and barked at each other in the alley ways, knocking over garbage cans and other people once their brought their brawls to the sidewalks.

While shouting their names out loud would be the quickest way to find the two, she opted not to considering she didn't know the reputation of the Donquioxte pirates with the town. She didn't want to them to get angry at her and chase her for being part of the crew. Well, she wasn't really a part of the crew per say but she was already guilty by association.

"Oof!" an unknown voice grunted as she accidentally slammed her face into the back of another person.

Order backpedaled as fast as she could, adjusting her glasses then looked up to see a stuffy looking man, He had dark, nearly pitch-black hair that was thin, greasy and slicked backwards. His tan skin was crinkled with wrinkles, deep parenthesis sinking around his mouth and further folded in by the tight-lipped frown he gave.

"Watch where you're going you disgusting peasant!" he snapped 

" Geez. Sorry." she raised her hands placatingly.

He merely sniffed haughtily and turned away, strolling to wherever he was going. Order rolled her eyes at his retreating back for a second before continuing her own mission.

Order wasn't sure how much time has passed before she finally was able to locate the two young pirates in and alley beating the snot out of another child behind a couple of garbage bins. Said child sported a split lip and a black eye, handed over some rectangular pieces of gray paper, which I assume was Beli and scuttled off. Buffalo and Baby 5 were giggling, counting their "earnings" and she sighed. Gaining a firm facial expression, she placed her hands on her hips.

"Where the heck have you two been? Me and Gladius have been scouring this town for almost an our looking for you two troublemakers."

The small devil fruit users jumped up slightly, startled my sudden appearance and light scolding.

"Oi! Don't do that. Are you trying to give us a heart attack?!" huffed Baby 5 as she pocketed the money.

"Anyway. We're glad you found us desayn. It was getting boring taking money from a bunch of weak punks. Now we can take money from a bunch of weak punks with you!" Buffalo grabbled Order's hand, prompting Baby 5 to tug on the other hand as well.

She bit back the wince of her injured arm being pulled on carelessly.

"Whoa now! Ow!" she tensed the muscles in my legs to make it harder for them to move her. The sudden stop caused their fingers to slip from hers. They stumbled.

"I told Gladius once I found you, we'd meet back at the entrance to the town. Once we find them then we ca harass more people." she added that last part to placate them once she saw their expression had begun to sour.

That seemed to satisfy them for now as they once gain started to pull her more gently, but towards the entrance of the town. The brisk walk back was uneventful. Mostly because they were moving at a relatively fast pace as several people scrambled out of the way, realizing who she was being pulled by. The more confrontational townsfolk grew growls on their faces and started to go after them, wielding bats and other melee weapons. Order leaned forward.

" Lets take a more deserted route. Our current company is unpleasant."

The two children acknowledged her concerns and dipped into a dark alley. They paused, silent until the small throng of people that had gathered around the area dispersed. Once they were gone, they turned towards each other. She pursed her lips and put her fists on her waist, looking upset.

"What? "they asked

She sighed and put her hands down. "Never mind. Doesn't matter now. Let's go."

They quickly but carefully made their way back to the entrance of the town just as Gladius arrived at the gate.

"What impeccable timing." Gladius noted.

"We beat up kids for money, and we didn't forget to pick on brats our own size and bigger." Baby 5 shouted happily, wrenching her hand out of Order's grip and hugging the punk dressed pirate.

"You did now do you?" he asked.

The two young'uns nodded enthusiastically. Gladius looked up to Order, pulling his mask up which slid down slightly.

"Did they give you much trouble? These little troglodytes act out of hand when they know someone who isn't used to their behavior handles them."

Order shook her head.

"Hmm." Gladius mused as if their behavior was suspicious. Order assumed so too. She just arrived and had no weight over anybody. If anything, she half expected them to scream, protest and lead her on a wild goose chase throughout the town. Maybe they were told to act nice towards her the first couple of times and raise hell later.

They way back to the hideout was fairly quiet and without much incident. There was one case of Gladius lightly scolding Baby 5 and Buffalo for harassing a flock of birds by tossing stones at them. By the time we arrived 'home', the yard had been cleared from the scattered and crumpled metal scraps. Order found that it was stacked into relatively neat piles along the sides of the general pathway rather than being chucked back into the mountain of scrap from which it originated.

"You go ahead Order. There is another matter I must attend to." He walked off before giving me a chance to respond.

Mentally shrugging, she lead the two young pirates up the stairs and began to open the door. Through the crack, she could see Law standing there just before the threshold, a deep frown on his face. She failed to notice the string connecting from the doorknob to the top of the door. All it took was the slight tilt upwards in the corner of his mouth to tell Order that she had inadvertently fell for a trap. Freezing cold water cascaded from a rust pail, drenching her, but was set up in such a particular way that the water drained outside. Her clothes clung to her skin like grass seeds to a pant leg, the cold water stabbing her with a bajillion tiny knives. She was too shocked from the cold to gasp in surprised but the look on my face definitely showed it. Baby 5 and Buffalo guffawed behind me as Law chuckled darkly under his breath, the first version of a laugh I've ever heard from him since the burning of Flevance. She was glad, even though the reason was cynical. Order simply huffed and shook off the extra water that dripped from the ends of her hair, clothes and finger tips. Protests rang from behind me as the two younger members were sprinkled with water. She ignored them.

"…. I'm not mad. I'm not even disappointed. In fact, I fully expected something like this so…If your goal was to upset me then you failed." she said, body shaking from the cold.

Law gave no indication of what his goals were, though his tiny corner smile did drop.

"What's with you and him desyan?" Buffalo raised an eyebrow.

"It's…complicated." she answered. "However, this won't go unanswered. I most definitely plan to get him back."

"So, are you going to initiate some kind of war? If you get back at him, he wont like it and will try to strike again." Baby 5 said

"If that is what it takes to knock him off his high horse then so be it."

The two grew wicked smiles and turned to me. "We have some suggestions if you're interested."

"I'm listening."

After changing my clothes and bandages, the three of them constructed a plan to get back at Law. Order was honestly surprised she managed to get them to agree with me. However, she thought they were doing it for the sole purpose of upsetting Law rather than her cause. Either way, they were with her rather than against her and that was the only thing that mattered. Baby 5 called Law into her room asking him for a "favor". What it was, she didn't tell us. And she specifically asked that he take his shoes off for she "didn't want any dirt to be tracked onto the carpet."

While Law was distracted, Buffalo and Order went into the kitchen, taking Law's shoes. Their plan was to put something gross inside of his shoes. They looked among the cupboards.

"There!" Buffalo pointed at a can of beans.

Order pulled it down from the shelf and read the label. "…These things expired 3 years ago! What on earth?"

Buffalo just shrugged and took the can opener from the draw and put Law's shoes on the counter and opened the can. The inside smelt horrific. Slimy, spoilt, rotten beans sat on the inside of the rusted can.

"Jeez, I smelt the things before I even saw them. This isn't going to work with a smell that potent desyan. He'd smell them at the threshold of the door." Buffalo commented.

"We need a way to buffer the smell." Order pulled open a draw and inside were what appeared to be her version of a Ziploc bag. "These might do the trick. The plastic can contain the odor but be thin enough to burst open when Law puts his feet inside. We'd have to set this up very carefully."

Buffalo nodded in agreement "Yeah, he could very well be the type of person who looks inside his shoes before he puts them on."

As he said this, she poured the rancid beans in the plastic bag and filled it halfway. Resting the can aside, she zipped the bag shut, folded it in half and gingerly stuffed it in the toes of Law's shoes. The two of them did some testing, walking in front of the shoes from different angles to see if the bag peaked out from anywhere. It didn't.

The two of them rushed back to the room and put Law's shoes exactly where they found them and hid. Not long after, Law left Baby 5's room, a blank look on his face. One of those horrified blank looks rather than a bored blank look. Not even looking down, he slid his feet into his shoes. We watched as Law's face slowly transformed into confusion and then quickly into anger. He snapped his neck in every direction, looking for us.

"You're going to get whiplash moving your head that fast…. oh gods…what is that awful stench!" Baby 5's hands flew up to her nose which was wrinkled in disgust.

"The stench of someone who's going to be dead very soon." Law growled as he looked down.

Order took this as her queue and stepped into the 'limelight'. She threw a sideways smirk on her face. "I hope you're not referring to me now. Dying so soon would be a crying shame. Don't you think?"

"I think that you should hurry up and strangle yourself with those bandages already. What the hell was this for?!"

She pretended to think long and hard. "I don't know. Maaaybe it has to do with the fact that you threw away my food? Or…I know! _Dumped a bucket of freezing cold water on me!_ With every action there's an equal reaction Law. This is my response. I suggest you do not continue down this road."

"…Are you _challenging_ me?"

"Take it how you see it. Just know…." she walked over to him and bent down to his face. "I have _plenty_ more where that came from."

He bared his teeth at me. "You're on."

The next week and a half were a whirlwind of chaos in the Donquioxte household. Almost no one was safe from the flurry of 'attacks' Law and Order sent to each other. It was a good thing that they didn't seem to mind the majority of the time, otherwise the two of them would have been in some serious trouble. Over the course of the two weeks, Order saw Law's behavior towards her change ever so slightly. Not in the sense that he stopped being rude to her and finally respected her. She knew it would take a very long time for him to look at her that way, but in the sense that he saw them as equal........of sorts. He knew that she could retaliate against him and hold her own. Order was smart and wouldn't just let him do whatever he wanted to her as revenge for "letting his sister die". Granted, all of these were assumptions and there was no possible way to know what he really thought of her. As strange and odd as her plan was, it did have an effect on him. For one, he stopped glaring and her and growling every time she entered his presence and he stopped throwing her things away, which was good. Having to steal back something you stole is not fun.

The feud ended with a classic.

" _You have put beans in my shoes for the very last time!"_ Law shouted furiously.

"That's what you get for 'Connecting the Dots' on my skirt." she retorted

"I wouldn't have felt the need to do that if you didn't duct tape my entire side of the room!"

"Don't shrink wrap my stuff!"

"How I was not supposed to retaliate! After all, you did in fact but beans in my shoes. Again. Which for some reason you are obsessed with!"

"Only because you replaced the shampoo with syrup. I had ants in my hair for three days straight! Three! "

They paused.

"…. This needs to stop you know." she said into the silence. "This stupid thing that we're doing. It's not benefitting us in anyway. Just making us angrier and hostile at each other. There's obviously a lot that needs to be talked about and dancing around it by harassing each other is not the way. It hurts Law. I know. I know more that you care to realize or understand. And honestly? I'm tired. Of this garbage. I'm tired of fighting you and I'm tired of the other family members giving me the stink eye so…yeah. I'm done."

Order wasn't expecting any type of response so soon but was surprised when she got one.

"I won't argee with you but this petty arguing is very annoying. You're annoying and I don't want to deal with you anymore. So, I'm done." He walked away, but just before he turned the corner of the hall, he paused.

"Nothing has changed between us. I hope you know that. I still hate you very much and I still want you to choke yourself on your bandages but…you're not a dumb waste of space cause you tried to protect Lami."

He disappeared behind the hallway corner and she was left standing there, a strange feeling was swirling in her chest. It was one that she couldn't quite place, but she knew it was a good feeling. Accomplishment? Possibly.


	4. Enter Trouble Stage Left

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dellinger gets into trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys like the last chapter.
> 
> Leave your thoughts, comments, suggestions and predictions. I'd love to hear what you guys have on the brain in regard to this story. Constructive criticism is SUPER appreciated as I am always looking for a way to improve the quality of my work.
> 
> Now enjoy this chapter

Two weeks had passed since Order's arrival and oddly enough strange things-within the context of the One-Piece universe of course-hadn't begun to happen. As a result, it set her on edge because strange (read: bad) things always happened in One Piece. Whether it was to you, to someone you knew or someone you didn't know but it eventually affected you, always happened. That is why when Giolla gently put her hand on Order's shoulder, the teen's unhinged brain decided that it was a wise idea to jump up and whip around with her foot high in the air.

She effortlessly caught her leg and raised an eyebrow at her. Order giggled sheepishly, muttering a quick sorry as Giolla let go. "What's got you in such a tizzy?"

Her brain bluescreened for a hot second as she tried to come up with a believable excuse. If she answered that she was waiting for something bad to happen, Giolla'd ask 'why', which is a question Order would like to avoid as much as possible while she was here. It's not recommended to tell a dangerous pirate crew that you're on edge because you live in a universe where something bad happens every 2.5 seconds and nothing has gone wrong yet. You'd land in some boiling hot water. As her brain spun the "Excuse Wheel", Order's ears picked up the squeal of an opening door. She looked over to the door to see Corazon exiting it, her body involuntarily shivered. Giolla looked to where she was staring at.

"Oh." She said. "He's been flinging you a lot lately. Wonder what you've done to piss him off."

It wasn't a lie. 4 to 5 times a day, she found herself eye to eye with the seagulls and flesh to metal in the scrap heap. The blueish green splotches that decorated her skin was a testament to that. Still, Order wondered why he launched her into the sky twice as much as he did the other kids.

_'Could it be that since I'm the oldest, I should have enough sense to leave?'_

He did fling the kids for the purpose of discouraging them from joining the crew. Obviously, that did not work.

_'Maybe he especially wanted to get the message to me since I'm practically at the age where I could take care of myself. The other four kids…not so much.'_

"Exist. It's a wonder my bones aren't dust at this point." Order deadpanned while scowling at my scapegoat. While she understood his reason for throwing them it frankly, got very irritating and annoying to nurse avoidable injuries.

Giolla hummed for a bit. "How about you take care of Dellinger for a bit while I go out to run some errands? If Corazon finds you with the baby, he won't toss you. He never tosses Dellinger and by extension doesn't toss any of the kids when they're dealing with him. I'm sure you could use the break from his abuse anyway."

"Okay." Order couldn't deny the offer. Giolla probably just wanted someone to dump Dellinger on to begin with and used her as an excuse. Besides that, Order literally had nothing to do nor nowhere else to go.

She didn't want to chase after Corazon, it was too early to reveal the truth anyways and a key event needed to happen first. All the other Executives and Law were off doing who knows what. Not that she particularly cared but it would help keep her back safe in the future where things would most definitely get dicey.

Giolla led Order to Dellinger's room, which had some sort of 'Under the Sea' theme. It was mostly a lot of aquatic printed stuff. The art -art fruit user handed her an eyebrow raising long paper, explaining the what and what nots of Dellinger. Order looked down at the paper and back up at Giolla, only to find a blinking dotted outline of where she once stood. Great. She sighed through her nose and stuffed the sheet into the pocket of her knee length tan pants.

Soft snores floated about the room and she knew the baby was sleeping. Silently, she padded over the white wooded crib and peered over the edge. There, on a mountain of bedding lay a tan skin blond haired, sharp toothed baby, with tiny horns poking from tufts of hair on either side of his head. He had some sort of safety mitts on to prevent himself from accidentally biting his fingers off as he slept. Fishmen were many times more powerful than a human. A baby, who wouldn't even know their own strength would most definitely unintentionally injure themselves.

Order reached a hand into the crib and gently brushed some hair out of Dellinger's face. The poor thing, being raised by horrible horrible people and growing up to become an absolute monster. Maybe, when Corazon eventually left with Law, her jumping aboard of course, she can somehow convince Giolla to give her the baby. That way, she can drop him off on an island with actual loving people and he wouldn't grow up to be so cruel.

"WAAHH!" Dellinger's startled cry snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Hey there." Order said normally lifting Dellinger out of the crib. Dellinger didn't like being baby talked. His brain was more developed than a human this age, so he understood the majority of what was being said to him. Even though he couldn't verbally articulate it.

"Jowa." He pouted. It took everything in me not to coo.

"She's running a couple of errands. She asked me to deal with you while she's gone. I hope that that's okay?"

He started at Order blankly, as if deciding how to respond to her question. His response was to bite her on the hand, not hard enough to break the skin though. She hissed and dropped him in the process, but he landed on his feet just fine and waddled away. His head twisted and turned, and he toppled things over as if he was looking for something.

Pulling out the sheet, she looked down the long list which had honestly becoming nothing but an extended smear of black into to her. Suddenly, the sheet was yanked out of her hand and shredded to bits.

"What the…?" Order breathed as the fine bits of paper floated down to the ground like snow. Dellinger was at her feet, spitting bits of paper out and picking some from between his pointed teeth.

He walked off contently, maybe the sheet was what he was looking for. She saw the hybrid climb back into his crib and sat on top of the bedding, giving her this evil glare before going back to sleep. Then it all clicked. Dellinger wanted her to figure out through trial and error what he liked and disliked.

Order frowned. She did not and was not going to do this alone. There was no way she was going to get blamed for making Dellinger cry when the hybrid himself shredded the paper that contained the ways to prevent that from happening. Opening on the door of her room, she found Law sitting on his side of the bed engrossed in some sort of medical book. The last survivor of Flevance did not notice her come in to stand by his bedside. As I result, when she barely grazed his shoulder with her fingers, he stiffly jumped in place. A strangled noise escaping him. The mild look of surprise on his face died and was resurrected as a scowl when he looked at her.

"What do you want now." His questions towards her always seemed like demands.

"Come and I'll show you." She answered, knowing that if she said anything about baby- sitting, he would instantly decline without even a first thought.

"No. Tell me what you want. I'm not getting up for something stupid." He found his lost place in his book.

"I was given an assignment by Giolla. I need your assistance with it." she said, trying to glorify the task as much as possible.

The cover of the book lowered from his face slightly, but his piercing golden eyes were still locked onto the pages. "Why? Are you so pathetic and weak that you can't even handle what is probably a simple assignment? What is your sorry ass gonna do when we go on actual missions and you'll have to face some poor bastard by yourself?"

"Tch. Don't slippery slope me." She rolled her eyes and plucked the book from his hands. She did not need to think heavily about making this decision. Force was always necessary regarding Law. Hopefully, that would change soon.

Three years…that was the amount of time she had to forge an acceptably solid relationship with Law and Corazon individually before the latter decides to personally invest in the former. She wasn't going to speed up the timeline like how she saw others would do in fanfictions. This was real and besides, she wasn't that lucky. Everything would go to hell in a handbasket if she tried to influence the timeline in such a significant way.

Instantly, Law pitched up, snarls and growls. Stretching his hands, he reached up for the book. Order simply raised it above her head, being almost twice as tall as him even though she herself was somewhat below average height for a girl her age. Huffing he jumped back on the bed again and tried to leap on her

"Give that back!" He grabbed her green long sleeved turtle neck and scaled her like a rock mountain.

"No." She shook him to the ground. He landed with a hard thump. "Only if you help me."

Rubbing his bottom, he gave Order a vehement glare. Then he launched for her legs and coiled around them like a snake, trying to trip her up. Order wobbled for a brief moment, tripping over her foot and chin landing hard on the mattress. Law unfurled himself and made a grab for the book shenstill clutched tightly. Sliding off the bed, Order dove underneath and crawled to the opposite side. Halfway under, a white and black spotted hat blocked some of the light. He was waiting for her. She reversed, crawling backwards but the hat disappeared. She couldn't turn her head to see, but she knew he had shifted back to his side of the bed, waiting for her to pop out so he could grab his book. Order crawled forwards again, but this time, albeit with difficulty, shifted so that she was parallel to the bed frame.

"Achoo! Ugh. Not coming out till you agree to help me." She said through burning sneezes. Dust had been kicked up due to her crawling and was now irritating her olfactory senses. She tried not to focus on the cobwebs hanging from the wooden frame nor the vacant dried shells of long deceased bugs.

"You're being immature. I thought you were supposed to be 18." Law kneeled; face pressed against the frame as much as he could with that wide-rimmed hat on. He still had an annoyed and angry look on his face. Typical of him. Order was not intimidated.

"Only in body." She replied simply, then paused.

"… I'll buy you the latest edition." she bribed with few words, looking at the faded cover. Didn't want to come off as desperate, that would most definitely turn Law away.

Several beats of silence. Eyebrows knitted in a mix of skepticism and incredulousness in the fact that she actually believed that she could convince him to help with bribery of all things.

"You know I would." She lied, adding sincerity in her voice so that he wasn't so tipped off to her fib. It's not that she wouldn't. It's just she didn't have the money nor would she know where to acquire such a thing,

"Do I?" Yes, you know and know she would not.

More silence. Then.

A resigned sigh. A twitch of an eye. A pulse of a vein "Fine." He spat. An unspoken but fully meant just so you could stop pestering me, hung in the air.

"Deal." She smiled and crawled from underneath the bed, exiting at the foot. Only her forearms once again tasted the light before she felt rather than saw the medical book being snatched out of her grasp. 

THUNK!

Order hissed as she raised her head too early and her crown hit against the frame. Rubbing at the area, she finished crawling from underneath and stood to her full height. Dusting off, Order told Law to come, who was sliding his book in the draw. He didn't answer verbally but rather rolled his eyes and tch'ed at her.

o-o

"Isn't this Dellinger's room?" Law deadpanned, no doubt looking up at her with a raised eyebrow.

However, his words were lost on her as she stared at the distinct Dellinger shaped hole in the door. This most definitely was not good. Pushing the door open, she barged inside and froze at the absolute catastrophe that was the room. Everything inside was either torn up, chewed up or utterly destroyed. The one thing that remained untouched was the crib. Of course. The bed is one of the most sacred pieces of furniture you could own. It made sense he'd treat it with reverence.

"Is this your assignment? Clean up that aquatic brat's mess?" Law was annoyed, bordering angry. To him, it looks like she dragged him away for something stupid.

"No. No, it wasn't." Order redirected her attention to him, panic replacing the blood in her veins "We need to find him before he hurts himself."

"We?" his voice was flat, monotone. The type of tone he used with her when he thought she was asking a ridiculously stupid question. The tone he used with her so often, regardless of whether or not she even asked a question, she had become immune to it.

"Yes we." Order huffed and turned around quickly, beginning the search. 

He said nothing but silently followed to help search. The two of them checked the kitchen, Giolla's room, everyone else's room except Corazon's and Doflamingo's, the docks and pretty much all of the hybrid baby's favorite places to be. At least places that he was somehow able to access without supervision- the fact that a baby shouldn't be unsupervised at all notwithstanding.

"Giolla's going to kill me." Order dropped onto a crate in the scrap yard and massaged her forehead. They'd been searching for the better part of an hour and had turned up with dust. They had no idea where the small child had gone. It wasn't as if they could have asked any one to search for him either. He and them for that matter were part of a dangerous gang of criminals-they hadn't ascended to piracy at that moment-and it would not be wise to spread their name around. Who knows what unsavory folks would be after them?

"Maybe she'll suffocate you in one of her hideous paintings." Law sat opposite of me, clearly amused at the prospect of me choking to death.

"Or worse. Turn me into one of her hideous paintings. Death by Discount Picasso is such a stupid way to go." She couldn't even find it in her to disagree with him on that notion.

"Picasso?"

"Some famous painter where I lived." She waved a hand of dismissal, thus ending this thread of conversation.

Yells and shouts of pain grab our attention. Screams of a baby followed along with the grunts of men and crashes of metal. All loud and clear as the noise came from below them. 

"Ow!" hissed a manly voice. He sounded irate and just about ready to carve someone "Stupid shark brat. I'm gonna be glad when I finally auction your ass."

Law gave Order a knowing look and she returned it. The two of them sprang off their seats and practically sled down the scrap mountain. There were very few people who come out this far looking for spare parts. None of the executives nor Doflamingo really chased them away as most were deemed non-threatening. They had most of the useful pieces of metal after all and normally they normally would leave once they found what they were looking for. There were even less who had the bravery or like Law liked to say, "the stupidity gene", to pick any sort of fight in the yard. If that was the case, Baby 5 and Buffalo were normally the ones who discouraged them from ever returning.

They skidded to a halt and watched, hidden by a tall pile of scrap. There he was, Dellinger, being picked on by three older men. One of them, with a botched haircut had Dellinger upside down by the ankle, holding him a distance away to avoid the baby's chomping jaws.

"What are those guys doing with Dellinger?" She narrowed my eyes.

"Better question. How do we get him out? We're unarmed and for the most part untrained. We're two scrawny kids and they're three adult men. Even if they had the grace of a beached sea king, they'd have brute strength to compensate. We're at a major disadvantage." observed Law, ever the optimist.

Looking at one of the men aggravating Dellinger, she replied "But we have an advantage that they don't. They're on our turf remember. We know everything about the yard. Hiding spots. Launch spots, what can best we weaponized."

"Valid point but my argument still stands." He made a move, but she yanked him by the collar of his shirt. He didn't take to kindly to that and slapped her hands away.

"Before we attack, can we try acting civil?" shensuggested. "We don't want to end up fighting if we don't need to."

He gave Order this 'you can't possibly be kidding me?' look. " Do they look like the type to hold a civil conversation?" Law gestured to one man with crooked teeth and holding a burlap sack, who was screaming obscenities to the one holding Dellinger. His arms were flailing about and be nearly smacked his own comrades several times.

"Let's just try alright. Do you really want to lose energy engaging in a petty fight?" Honestly, she just did not want to go brawling if she didn't need to. She wasn't strong, yet. Most definitely planned to train, but at this moment in time, wasn't looking forward to it.

Law contemplated my suggestion. "No. But civility still won't work. You'll distract him then I'll cut him." He scowled and the two of them left their hiding spot.

"Oi what are you guys doing." Order intentionally said in a gruff voice to garner their attention.

Her presence startled the men who all jumped. The one with a hideous haircut scrambled to hold Dellinger properly who instantly began reaching out for Order with his tiny hands. He began whining and struggling against the brute holding him even further. Bad haircut, tightened his hold on Dellinger, causing the babe to whine and cease moving to avoid being hurt. Mentally, she frowned.

"H-hi there. What can I do for you youngsters?" Bad haircut looked at them sheepishly, as if he was caught with his hand in a cookie jar by his mom.

"Give him back." Order instantly demanded, staring at the men with a wide seemingly innocent but truly unnerving smile that transformed into a 'do what I say or face the consequences' kind of smile the longer you stared at it.

"What?" the man was visibly confused. Though the way he whispered it under his breath seemed like a question more to himself than to them.

Order pointed at Dellinger to clarify and made a 'hand it to me' motion with her hands. " He belongs to my family. Return him and you'll leave with only a word of warning. Refuse, and the consequences would be much greater."

A beat amongst the men. Heads turned towards each other in silent conversation. Two. Three.

Laughs. Laughs all around. Loud raucous laughter like oh my gosh can you believe this pipsqueak? Just who in the North Blue does she think she's bossing around like that?

"AHEM!" Order cleared her throat loudly to halt the laughter. Law was simmering from his hiding place and she didn't need him to go ballistic on these guys. Not yet anyway. One of them was still on the look out and woud easily spot Law.

"Sorry kid. We can't give him to you. We have some business to deal with him." the man struggled to control Dellinger's squirming form. It was not something he should have said to them if he wanted to get away.

"What business do you have with a one-year old child?" She pretended not to know Bad Haircut's true intentions and folded his arms. Darkened became the shadows Law's hat cast over his face as he used her as a distraction.

"That's none of your business puny brat!" spat Hideous Teeth. She tilted his head to the side to avoid a flying glob of spit.

" Die then." Law growled then jumped and stabbed one of the men in the neck. He collapsed to the ground instantly.

In a snap, Bad Haircut had shoved Dellinger into the sack and made a mad dash with Hideous Teeth. Their bodies moved before our brains and chased after the men. Mouths moved next. Specifically, Law's, a very angry tone belting from it.

"Shit!" Law cursed after he leapt over a stove.

Order paid his cursing no mind as in the blur, a purple dot appeared on the edge of the scrap yard. It was Corazon running. He had left earlier and must have been returning home. Order smiled; this was absolutely perfect. Corazon would kick their behinds for trying to sell Dellinger into slavery. After all, Corazon never touches Dellinger, so he would never allow any one else to do so either. She just needed to find a way to gather the younger Donquioxte's attention.

"Look!" Order pointed a finger in Corazon's general direction.

Law turned his head to where she was pointing.

"All we need to do is keep running! I'll steer them closer to Corazon and you'll try to get Dellinger!"

"Don't tell me what to do!" snapped Law, but he increased his speed anyway.

At this Order sped up, nearly caught up with Bad Haircut. She reached out and grabbed his shirt, pulling him back and using the momentum to swing him to the side. He stumbled and slipped on scrap but managed to catch himself before completely falling down. He did not correct his path. The way she swung him was still to the exit, but he was far more to the right. Hideous Teeth followed suit, running more to the right.

Law had swiped a pipe that was at arms reach and used it to jab Hideous Teeth in the back of the knee. Being the son of a doctor, he located and hit a particularly sensitive bundle of nerves as the man yelled out and his leg practically caved beneath him. He gripped the bag tighter and kept running.

"Shit." It must have had the opposite effect. Perhaps he hoped for the man to let go of the bag instead of grabbing onto it.

The boy sped up and jabbed the same area as well. Unfortunately, Bad Haircut had turned around to see their positions when he found out what Law was going to do. He pulled Hideous Teeth closer to him and Law missed. That was okay though. They were nearing the yard's edge. Corazon was close. Order let herself get behind just a little, so she could build more momentum and run straight into Hideous Teeth's side. He yelled in surprise and stumbled, letting go of the bag and ramming into Bad Haircut.

Law and Order were moving too fast to halt in time to pick up the bag. If they tried to grind to stop, they both no doubt would have just toppled over and rolled down the steep slope we were on. But the clear, slowly fading crying instead of the muffled screaming indicated that Dellinger had gotten out of the bag and was smart enough to go home. Order didn't need to fear that anyone else would take him, no one showed up at the scrap yard around this time anyway. It was very late. Still, she'd have to ask when she got the time where did he go and how'd he managed to be caught by them.

Anyway, the impact of Order's shove finally caused the to men to completely fall down. Law and Order ended up speeding past them as they were still in full spring while the men were down. Yet, stretching their long arms they grabbed them by their ankles. Order hoped the force of our running would be enough to break their grip.

That was a lie.

In fact, it only succeeded in making them topple harder than if they were to trip slowing down. Order heard Law's muffled grunt before she heard her own. They were dragged back and pinned down as the guys crawled got up, hoisting them into the air.

"Oi! Put me down you Neanderthal!" Law's fists of fury were whipping uselessly as he punched the air in front of Bad Haircut.

"I'd appreciate if you do the same." Order looked up at Hideous Teeth who stared down at her with a look too many men shared in One Piece. It was an amazing thing she had decided to wear pants today.

"No can do." Bad Haircut shook his head. "You two caused us too much trouble. We've lost our prize."

Hideous Teeth flipped Order around and pinned her under his arm, my face facing his back. She mentally sighed. Bad Haircut did the same with Law, but his face was parallels to the man's face.

"I'm sure the two of you will make up the Berri you've cost us." Bad Haircut grinned, ignoring Law's shouting and flying fists.

"I dunno boss. Maybe we should keep this one." Hideous Teeth shook Order. She didn't take kindly to that and pounded at his back. "She's definitely the prettiest one out of all the girls here. Feisty too. Just my type." 

" You're disgusting."

Then Order dropped to the ground and he flew back. She looked above ger to see a swirl of dark purple feathers and a spotted cap standing on the side of those feathers. Corazon. He saw them. He came. He got Law. He got her.

"Right in time." She sighed in relief and pushed off the ground.

The two men groaned but didn't get up. Their faces were sunken in with a massive footprint. They left them behind. Didn't need to beat them up anymore. They weren't coming back.

Corazon pulled out a sheet and a pen and scribbled something. He turned it to us.

_What were you two doing?_

"They were trying to sell Dellinger. We got him away but got caught instead." Order explained shuffling to the opposite side of Law, away from Corazon.

_Where is he now?_

"Probably home now. We were going too fast to pick him up."

_You left him alone?_

"You see how dark it's getting? No one's going to be here to take the brat again anyway." Law answered this time. "Besides, after that, he'd learn to bite the fingers off of anyone who even dreamed of handling him that way again."

_That's not the point._

"Well the point is, he's not going to end up in the house of those shitty Celestial Dragons okay! And we're not either. So, drop the matter." Law grew increasingly frustrated with Corazon's questions and snapped at him, even though he knew he probably shouldn't considering who his brother was.

Being around the man, made Law visibly angry. Ever since the blonde had tossed him that one time, he's had it out for Corazon's blood. 

Order assumed Corazon had stared at Law before stuffing the paper and pen back into his coat. His shades were blocking his eyes. 

When we arrived back home, Order was instantly greeted with the face of a pissed off looking Giolla. The temperature dropped by three degrees. Giant sweat drops practically manifested around her head. "I heard what had happened today…" she began slowly.

Her heart plopped into her stomach and started to dissolve. Corazon and Law shuffled past Order, leaving her in Giolla's wake. Those traitors. "Y-yes."

Her eyes narrowed, the shadows around them growing deeper. Then Dellinger came from between her legs and stared up at her. She couldn't tell what look he had due to his hat and blonde hair that badly needed a trimming.

"He has something to say…" she continued, still slowly like a lion getting ready to pounce on its prey.

"…" Order stared down at the kid, face turning blue, glittering with sweat. This is it. This is where she dies.

"Tank u!" he jumped into Order's arms and rubbed his face into her chest. 

Order was baffled. She thought Giolla was going to kill her. The air lightened and Giolla seemed pleased. "This is how he tests the newcomers."

"By being captured by human traffickers?" Order tilted her head, she was sure there were question marks floating all around her head.

"No. That was unprecedented. Normally he just makes a huge fuss, and depending on how he is treated, he'll say whether he approves of that person or not." Giolla let her pass and she stepped inside still shocked at the outcome of recent events. It was very underwhelming to say the least and she felt that a lot more should have been said or done.

Buffalo and Baby 5 were setting the massive dining room table. She smelt something good coming from the kitchen. It was nearly dinner time.

"O-oh. And I'm assuming I passed?" Order grinned nervously, wringing her hands together as Dellinger jumped out of her arms and waddled past the devil fruit user.

"With flying colors!" Giolla clasped her hands tightly and used her foot to slam the door shut.

How though? All She did was wasted an hour running around Spider Miles with Law and nearly got caught by human traffickers.

"I'm…going to clean up and then help set up." Order was tired and didn't know how to feel about the information she just received. She decided not to dwell on it and focused instead on washing today's filth off of me.

0-0

Idle chatter streamed across the table. Law, Corazon and Order were the only ones who remained silent. The former because he truly wanted nothing to do with these people save for Doflamingo and the latter because he couldn't break his cover. Order? She just had nothing to say to any of them. What would she even say?

Raucous laughter came from across the table. Baby 5 and Buffalo were clapping and laughing, making fun of Corazon. He'd accidentally flipped the bowl of hot souse all over himself. Pasta draped across his legs. The marine spy's head was bent down, mouth turned into a frown and. Order frowned herself. She honestly felt bad for Corazon. He didn't deserve that. Then again, harassing the younger Donquioxte brother could be the only way the young children could get back at him for tossing them all the time-without breaking the Blood Law. It looked like they were the type to do that.

Doflamingo had asked Corazon a question, something about a small assignment, which was probably the reason why he was coming back home to begin with. Pen scribbled on the paper almost hypnotizingly, as the little scritch scritch noises shot off, she wondered:

_'What can I do now to help Corazon with his mission and become less suspicious to the Family? Fixing certain issues now could certainly help in the long run when crunch time came. One of the biggest tip offs was when Corazon and Law had disappeared for months and the Marines had barely known where Doflamingo was'_

"Oi Order. What is it that you are thinking so deeply about?" asked someone around a mouthful of food. Order was to into it for my brain to decipher who it was. Regardless, the voice had still startled me enough that her gave a little jump at my…name…being called.

"Nothing. Nothing." She said quickly. Too quickly. Way too quickly for it to be overlooked.

She got glares. Glares hard enough that she had no choice but to submit. Order sighed.

"Fine. I was thinking…." Uh what was she even going to say. She looked to the pen and paper. Got it "Everyone in there should really learn how to speak in hands. Or at least make our own method of communicating with Corazon. It saves time and paper."

Corazon looked at me. She shivered. She felt as if he was going to throw her again. The other members looked at Order in silence in varying degrees. All of them had their personal set of expressions she couldn't really identify yet considering that she knew none of them personally.

" It would be convenient in fights as well. Talking to each other across the battle field, but no one knows what we're planning." Law casually says, breaking what she felt to be a rather uncomfortable silence.

"Fufufu! Why didn't you say anything?" Doflamingo laughed.

"Only birds fly." It took a moment for it to click in everyone's heads.

"Ah." Came the collective response.

Then everything went back to normal. Once again, an underwhelming reaction to what she felt should have sparked more comments. Order blinked again at the rough and awkward exchange. She honestly expected for them to laugh at her or make some snide remark. Order supposed she wasn't integrated enough into the Family for my opinions to really matter. Whether they were useful or not.

Everyone was done soon enough and went to do their own business before it was time to go to bed. Order helped Giolla clean the table and washed the dishes before going into her room and collapsing on the bed. Today was exhausting.

"You weren't really thinking about communicating with that clumsy clown were you." Law didn't look up from his book, the one Order finessed earlier today.

"What gave you that idea?" She sat up properly, neither confirming nor denying his suspicions, making sure to stay on her half of the bed.

There was no response.

That night, Law had a night terror. It was different from his usual nightmares. Usually, he would toss and turn once in a while, mumble indecipherable words, sweat and wake up. Order, being a horrifically light sleeper was awake to witness every single fit and watched as he slowly shuffled off of their lump of a mattress, sit in the window and stare at the moon despondently. Tonight however, was a completely different story. He was thrashing about wildly, legs moving as if he was running, kicking Order in her neck and back several times. She was surprised he hadn't accidentally thrown himself off the bed. The typically light sweat came down like a torrent, the sheet was soaked. Quiet mumbles turned into near shrieks and yells, he almost looked like he wanted to cry. But he promised himself that he would never cry again. His face was contorted in pain and agony as if everything he was experiencing in his dreams, he felt in real time.

Order didn't know what to do. She didn't know how to help him, yet she had to do something. Shuffling over to where he was (getting kicked in the process) Order drew him closer to her. His little fists where still shooting off but positioned it in a way where he'd be swiping at air. She ran a hand through his damp hair and sang. There were no words that she sung, just soothing hums and vocalizations. Slowly but surely, Law started to relax. His face had smoothed out and he had stopped failing. Rapid breaths slowed to an acceptable pace. Gently shaking his shoulders, she woke him up. She read somewhere that you had to wake the person up and let them wait a few minutes before letting them go back to sleep. She assumed it was to let the 'brain reset itself' or something.

Law groaned and then stopped, sticking his hand out and then recoiling it quickly when he slammed his palm against her face. They normally slept with their backs facing each other.

Instantly, he shuffled back only to cringe in a pile of his cold sweat. "What…happened."

"You had a night terror. Had to calm you down then wake you up." She explained, not moving from her position, though she now rested on her back instead of her side.

"I see." She felt him shuffle closer to her, not too close though. Just enough to be clear of the sweat puddle but not close enough for him to be pressed against her like he was beforehand.

She gave a noise and nodded her head even though he wouldn't be able to see it, grateful that he hadn't thanked her. She sure he was grateful she hadn't asked for thanks either. Having to say thank you to anyone, especially to Order probably would have killed him before the Amber Lead.

It was silent in the room after that. Not an uncomfortable silence per say, but still the type of silence that eventually became uncomfortable if you sat in it for too long.

"…Wanna talk about- "

"No."

"Okay."

That was that. Morning came and Order was like a smashed barrel. Neither of them had gone back to sleep. Law because every time he tried to get a decent rest; his brain decided to loop back his memories of the blood stained Flevance. Order, because once she awake, she doesn't go back to sleep unless extremely exhausted. Her brain decided 3 hours was enough even though her body thought otherwise. Unfortunately for her, the brain won and forced her out of bed when the sun had peeked through the slits in the blinds.

A rather deep huff of a groan came out of her as her feet hit the floor. Zombie-like, she ambled to the shower, got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast. The shower did nothing to wake her. In fact, it only seemed to heighten her temptation to sit carefully in the tub and go to sleep.

When she was done, all the other family members were already seated, dressed and eating. Order was the last one to arrive. In this sleep deprived state of mind, she couldn't care. Roughly dragging the chair, she plopped her behind in it and her forehead instantly dropped to the table as if the bones in her neck suddenly disappeared. She couldn't help but let out a guttural sound of pure exhaustion, a slight sob making its say in the tail end. Her eyes burned behind the lens and she couldn't move her arms. It was like auto pilot had sporadically switched to manual without giving her any time to prepare.

"Sounds like you had a great night." Someone sarcastically remarked. She was too tired to tell who it was. All sounds sounded exactly the same to her.

"Simply magnificent. So much so I can see sounds and hear colors." Order responded with the same bite, probably even more now that she was irritated.

With a determined huff, Order practically launched her head off the table and with will alone plated her food and started engaging with the Family. It was a bit difficult running on pretty much zero bars but somehow, she managed to do it. Breakfast smeared into one quick blur with pointless drivel, tipped milk glasses, complaints about how the pancakes were burnt, then dares to make better pancakes. All in all, stuff she could safely not pay attention to. Then, Doflamingo spoke.

"Three days from now, we will have our raid on Rakesh. Those bastards have betrayed us, and you all know how I deal with betrayal."

Yes, Order knew very well.

"Official training begins for our new recruits shortly thereafter." He turned towards Law and Order, purple shades glinting in the sunlight, that wide smile on his face. "Prepare for a world of hurt."

Law looked at him as if Doflamingo was offering a challenge. Doflamingo grinned then looked at Order.

"…Yes, Doflamingo." Was her firm response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked. Felt this chapter was weirdly structured in some parts, but I couldn't figure out how to fix it. This was mostly filler but some action is coming up! Yes! And Corazon has made his official debut! I think things may speed up after the next chapter, don't want the foundation of this story to burn too slowly now.
> 
> Don't forget to review!


	5. Defending the Offensor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffalo doesn't keep his mouth shut.

Somehow, those three days leading up to the raid lasted way longer than the past two weeks. Time crawled, nearly to a stop and Order didn't like it one bit. Maybe it was the nervousness that sat in her stomach like a lump of coal that shot time with Captain Foxy's Slow-Slow Beam. Either way, all the waiting had made her sweat out half my weight and she was so not having a good time. Not that being stuck inside of an anime where your entire life can be ruined out of the blue in five seconds flat and being on arguably one of the most dangerous pirate crews to date accounts as having a good time. However, turns out becoming a living fountain of salt water was rather uncessessary considering that

" You and Law are not coming. It's just a quick errand and we don't want to put you two in unecessary danger should they pull something unexpected. We have a particular system when dealing with stuff like this and we don't want unofficials getting in the way. But it should be fine! You'll have Buffalo to entertain you!" Baby 5 added a smiley face and a heart at the end of that sentence, always the most cheerful of our bunch.

Order interally cried with joy and relief washed over her from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet. Not at the Buffalo part, Order found him somewhat annoying-on the screen and even more so now that he's two inches from her face: he steals her money and squanders it on ice cream. Being lactose intolerant, it stung ger a little that he spends it on food she can't even take back from him as payback. She wasn't about to smack it out of his hammy hands either though. That was just being wasteful and petty. Law didn't seem to care. Then again, he always never seemes to care. You couldn't really tell what he was thinking anyway due to the seemingly permantent scowl that was etched on his face. The boy just scoffed and walked away after the girl's message. Balling the paper, flicked it into the garbage before walking away herself. By this time, everyone had left to lay waste on Rakesh, leaving their trash hideout to Order, Law, Buffalo and Corazon. Buffalo went into the nearby town, most likely to harass some of the street kids. Law was sulking outside, staring at Corazon who was reading a newspaper with hate filled in his eyes. It brimmed, threatening to flood over and be unleashed onto any poor sucker who crossed his path at an ill time. Probably best not to bother him. Who knows what he could be thinking about? Order would rather not have any of that directed onto her if she could help it. She started to think.

_'The events of Dressrosa were long and very confusing as well as the fact that it happened over the course of a couple years, at least in my time, which makes it a bit unbelievable that Doflamingo's empire came crashing down in a single day because of a meat loving rubber man and vengeful free modification surgeon. My memory of what happened are linear and fuzzy at best and non-existant at the worst. I could can for certain that it wasn't at the worst. Its... somewhere in the middle. Ridiculously scrambled and fuzzy, just bits and pieces of certain scenes popping in and out at various intervals. All which means I have to pay very close attention to what's happening around me. I can't just go through this flying by the seat of my pants. I need to make a plan, mentally write down a list of all the things i wish to accomplish, but the storage capacity in my brain rivals that of a gnat's. I simply can't trust myself to store pertinent information in a space filled with so many holes it was 85% guaranteed that revelant information would slip out at one point if the box was rattled hard enough, even more so in high-stress situations. Considering where I am, I'd be facing a lot of those. I'd be in more trouble with Doflamingo than Rodger was with the World Government if he ever were to find out what I knew. But...more likely than not, something was going to happen along the way that would render any plan i make useless. So is it better to improv this entire thing then and avoid getting in trouble by accidentally responding to a situation i should have no prior knowledge of?'_

Order sighed and slid against the wall outside, next to the front entrance and rubbing her temples, quite possibly thinking herself into a headache.

_'There's just...so much that's going happen and the possibilty of everything falling to pieces in the time it takes to blink lurkes at every single corner. Even more so now that I'm here. This world wasn't meant to hold me, so now that I'm squeezed into it, the world would most likely shift and bend the story to try to support my existence. Meaning, that there are several unknown variables that have now entered the playing field on top of the fact that i've landed in the first year rather than the third. There were two whole years that i would be going absolutely blind in. Knowing nothing, zip, zilch. That's more than enough to begin to fray my nerves. Doubt that every thing would be more or less smooth for me in the Void Years began to fill me. Not sure i was blessed with the luck of a protagonist. Or even secondary protagonist for that matter. Then there was the issue of how i even got here to being with, and how i was going to get back home.'_

Heavy stomping on creaking steps, alerted Order of someone's presence and she looked up to see the most disproportionate of the Donquioxte children, Buffalo. With twig like legs, it was a wonder how his kneecaps managed not to shatter with all the pressure it must be withstanding. His face was fat and chubby with really defined cheeks and Timmy Turner teeth peeking from his thick lightly colored lips. Jeez, Oda could design some hideous characters. At least he looked sorta okay when he got older.

"What do you want?" Order asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice. She really didn't want to be bothered by Buffalo of all people. Not while she was going through a crisis she'd never thought she'd have.

Instead of receivng a verbal answer, a leather wallet greeted her square on the nose before sliding down into her lap. An empty leather wallet. Her empty leather wallet. She glared up at him, and the triple wildberry ice-cream cone that he held in his hand. Dripping and sliding between fat riddled fingers without a care in the world.

" Thanks." She said sarcastically. " You're blocking my view." She made a pushing motion with my hand to emphasize her point. Though, Order didn't really care about any sort of view. She'd be staring at gray and rust for quite a while. She simply didn't want him standing directly in the front of me, invading my personal space.

Buffalo seemed to get the message before scooting over to the side and sitting directly on the side of her, even more so invading her space plus blocking the sun. His shadow was cold. Very cold. Order couldn't be bothered to make him move again so she just sulked on the side of him. Buffalo turned his ice-cream stained face to her.

" Why are you so boring?"

"What."

" You're boring-desyuan. You're no fun. Baby 5 is fun-desyuan. She plays with me alot. Law is mean and mean people are not fun, so he's excused. You on the other hand, are not mean-desyuan. So you should be fun. Why aren't you fun?" he repeated clarifying his question a bit further.

Wiping spit with the back of her hand she answered with a shrug " Who knows? Maybe I'm not fun to you but fun to someone else. Maybe you're not the fun one so I don't want to play with you. Maybe there's nothing here that I can have fun with." Order curled her knees closer to her chest. She really didn't want to be conversing on the prospect of fun with Buffalo right now.

" Nu-uh. You don't know how to have fun-desyuan." Buffalo pitched in his own idea on his urget question, completely disreagarding what she had told him. What was the point of asking a question if you're just going to ignore what was said and come up with your own conclusion anyway?

" What makes you think I don't know how to have fun?" Order turned up her head at Buffalo, raising an eyebrow to him. She couldn't believe she was actually humoring him right now, but then again, there's nothing for her to do right now so she'd might as well entertain herself with this. Plus it would be a little cool to get more perspective on Buffalo's character. She didn't really see much of 'him' in the anime.

The giant child shifted his body more towards her as well. " I can feel it-desyaun. You're stressed out about something. Stressed out people don't know how to have fun. All they do is sit around, and sulk and look like they're always thinking about something-desyuan. All you've been doing is sitting around, sulking and looking like you're always thinking about something. You're stressed-desyuan. You don't know how to have fun."

Order's mouth gaped like a fish, opening and closing as she listened to Buffalo's observation. He wasn't entirely wrong, more than a few strands of hair had been falling out of her scalp lately as a result of the critical, situation she found herself in. She wondered if the other members of the Family noticed her behavior and just chose to ignore it.

" That's...quite the analysis you've got there..." She breathed, still in shock about how easily he read her. If a child can do this, then what are the trained adults noticing? How much has she already unknowing revealed through her body language? How much does Doflamingo know already? The possiblites began to stream endlessly through my head. Not many of them were good.

" So i'm right then-desyaun. What are you stressed about? Maybe i can fix it and you'll be fun, so you can play with me and Baby-desyuan." he brightened at the idea of Order interacting with him more if he was able to fix her problem.

" It's...not anything i can tell you. Not ever most likely. Really personal stuff. Sorry." Order turned my head away from him, hugging knees as close as she could and burying her face in them.

Buffalo frowned for a bit, then stuffed the entirety of his ice-cream cone is his mouth, chewed like twice then swallowed. He licked the remaining milk and sugar off his fingers and wiped his face with the back of his hand, then licked that off too. " Okay then. I understand. Almost everyone in the Family have personal stuff they can't tell anyone-desyuan. Even Baby 5 can't tell me when i told her i needed to hear it. She just burst into tears and i promised to never ask again-desyuan."

Order stared up at him in silence before looking back over the scrap yard. "...i think singing is fun." She said quietly, not intending for anyone to hear really. Never thought Buffalo to be the type to be sensitive towards how other people feels. Through his interactions with Law in the show, he really liked to take advantage of people through bribery and was insensitive and criticising towards the Flevance survior. Or maybe she was giving the buck toothed child more credit than he actually deserved? It could just be this particular thing-personal issues-that he was sensitive about?

Buffalo's huge ears picked it up like she shouted with a mega phone. " Then why don't you sing-desyaun?" He asked casually, as if asking what's the weather like.

" I have nothing to sing for. plus I don't have my guitar. I mean, I can sing without one. I just prefer to sing with one. helps me keep the key." She answered just as quiet. Why was Buffalo so interseted in this?

Buffalo seemed to ponder on what i said for a moment before speaking. " iIll get you a guitar-desyuan. then you can sing and have fun with me and Baby 5." His response honestly surprised me.

Our conversation was briefly interuppted by a heavy set of footsteps and the very dramatic drop in temperature that left the world shaded ice blue. Something sharp was pressing against her conciousness, as if it was trying to force it's will upon hers and over power it. A sharp shiver snaked down her spine and it took most of her will to keep my body rigid and release the nervous energy in the form of several unnoticable finger twitches. Tips of blonde hair could be seen long before reaching the very top steps due to Doflamingo's towering form. There was a deep set scowl in his face. The kind that that kept Buffalo from jumping up and happily greeting his Master. Instead, the large boy thickly swallowed, stood up gave a single nod in acknowledgement, trying to hide the terror in his face. Order did the same, standing up though her height reached nowhere near as much as Buffalo's did. The pink clad man stood before them and gave a nod as well.

" I'm going to rest. Make sure nothing disturbs me." his voice boomed from within his chest, somehow still quiet but demanding and expecting nothing more or less that the command he just gave. As if he was a king, giving his orders to his court and required their undying obedience.

He disappeared past the door and it slammed shut, rattling the wall. It took a few seconds, but the air did warm up again and they both shook off the chilling encounter with the leader of the Donquioxte Family. They sunk back to the floor, legs feeling rather weak, like jelly and suddenly being unable to support her weight. She near felt like passing out. Was this is what people who was exposed to Conquering King's Haki felt like? No. It was probably a lot worse. Order doubted Doflamingo was even using his Haki. That most definetly would send Buffalo and Order sprawling into unconsiousness. Maybe Order more than Buffalo. But if that was the aura that man exhibited with his Haki stuffed into a what she assume to be a very tightly capped bottle, then she applauded future Law for staying awake while Doflamingo and Luffy, both potent King's Haki users had a Haki battle five inches above his face while he was already seriously injured and well on his way to unconciousness regardless.

Silence remained between the two of them for a brief moment more before Order broke it and folded her arms. She didn't want to dwell on Doflamingo for too long anyway.

" Why would you do that for me? What's in it for you? And what's with it with you and 'fun' anyway? Life isn't all about fun you know."

" I know-desyuan. That's why i like to have it. It keeps me...distracted...from all the bad stuff. It keeps Baby distracted as well-desyuan. I think you should get the chance to be distracted as well-desyuan." Buffalo answered with a strange seriousness, following her idea of trying to loosen the shake from the encounter.

" But...why?" She asked, seriously unknowing as to why Buffalo would be helping her. She was just the 'new kid'. Who knows how long Buffalo had been serving under Doflamingo before Law and Order arrived? Quite possibly a long time to due the absolute comfort he and Baby 5 had with harrassing Corazon has much as they did.

" You keep letting me steal your money for ice-cream. If you seriously had a problem with me taking it, you'd be hiding it in better places-desyuan. I don't think you're airheaded enough to just forget about that. Unless I'm wrong-desyaun." He narrowed his eyes in judgement.

" No. i can always steal more money and keep that seperate from your ice cream money." Man, really dodged a bullet there. 

" Ha! I knew you weren't that dumb-desyuan!" Buffalo pitched pitched up, grabbed Order's hand and yanked her forward, the momentum raised her a feet feet in the air. " Come on! I think there's a music store down there. We can go, get a layout of the area, then steal it when everyone's left!"

His hand tightly wrapped around Order's slender wrist, Buffalo more or less dragged her down the stairs with him. She nearly stummbled over her own ankles a few times due to the unusual speed at which Buffalo was moving. She thought heavier things moved slower than fast things. But she supposed this didn't necessarily apply to Buffalo when it came to something that he wanted. Bufallo flew down the last fight of stairs and landed heavily on the ground. Order grunted, her shoulder rolling in an uncomfortable manner. Order was manhandled for a few more minutes before Buffalo halted abruptly, causing her to slam directly into his back and bouncing off. She wrenched her wrist from the boy's suddenly loose grip and gave him an annoyed look. But that instantly melted off when she saw the shocked look on Buffalo's face. Turning towards the direction Buffalo was looking an, an equally shocked look donned her face, but my expression was a bit more haunted as she watched the scene, as she remembered.

This was when Law stabbed Corazon in the back.

Law's feet were already in the air with the momentum, sword pierced deep in Corazon's side. You didn't have to see to know that it came out through to the other side. Law pulled out the now bloody weapon, and the younger Donquioxte brother slumped out of his seat and down to the ground, clenching his side tightly. The last survior of Flevance stared over the trembling body for a few seconds, sword raised to finish the job before before Buffalo shouted out that he must inform Doflamingo, alerting Law to their presence. He whipped his head towards them, looking at Order for a few moments longer than he stared at Buffalo, then dashed off, tossing the bloody sword somewhere off in the distance. She could see that a million curses were running through his head.

" I must inform the Young Master!" Buffalo exclaimed, quickly whipping around.

Order jumped immediately in the front of him, nearly getting bulldozed. " Absolutely not! Didn't you hear him about making sure nothing disturbs him? Besides, what makes you think Corazon won't squeal on Law later anyway? You really think that man is going to take a poor assasniation attempt from a punk like Law? " She asked, constructing her words to appeal to the loyal Donquioxte follower, even though she knew stopping Buffalo would have no effect on the inevitable events to come.

Buffalo looked torn between duty to report to Doflamingo and what Order had said, then he shivered and settled for what she had said. " Fine. But if anything goes wrong, i'm blaming you for not letting me do my job-desyaun."

Order let out a breath of relief. " Good... Why don't we go buy something sweet to eat to distract ourselves from this unsettling discovery. Law will get his punishment soon enough." She patted Buffalo on the back. She wasn't going to chase after Law, he was going to be dragged back by two of Doflamingo's subordinates anyway. Nothing she needed to do there. Well, there was nothing she needed to do here either, but Buffalo looked super panicked. So she guess she was extra insurance to make sure Buffalo stayed here.

" I'm going to find Baby 5. Wanna come?" Buffalo offered instead.

" No." Order shook her head, she didn't want to be around the artillery girl. Despite her cheerful attitude, her know-it-all demeandor turned her off. Squinting at the spot where Corazon still lay she said " I'm going to make sure he isn't dead or paralyzed or something. Law struck super close to an organ...i think."

Order didn't wait for a response as she shuffled down the scrap yard carefully. She didn't want to slip on something and start barrel rolling down a slope of pointy bits. As Order got closer, she saw Corazon slowly and painstakingly get up, nursing the wound in his side. He was going to need a new shirt by the looks of it. Not that it mattered anyway since that a new shirt was going to get ruined later by blood anyway. Corazon fell again and she uselessly stretched her hands to catch him, being pinned to the ground herself. Order's height didn't help either, she barely came up to his knees. The guy was a sky scraper, and a heavy one at that. Corazon glared at me and Order rolled her eyes.

" With that wound, i'm pretty sure if you fell, you wouldn't be able to get back up. Now stop griping and come so i can bandage this thing." Order pushed up off the ground, giving Corazon the leverage needed to get off the dirt easier.

Corazon wordlessly followed her up to the house and into their little medbay. It wasn't all that impressive. Just a bed, and a table with a couple draws filled with needles, bandages, disinfectant and pain meds. There were also several worn medical texts on some shelves that was this close to giving up the ghost and just collapsing on the floor. Though the books looked like they were worn from the elements and not by actual use.

The Heart Excective sat heavily on the bed and peeled off his bloody shirt, tossing it into a bin in the corner of the room specifically for blood stained clothes. Order cleaned both wounds, on his front and back with soap and water before disinfecting them. Corazon hissed and his muscles clenched but otherwise he let loose not another syllable. She inspected the wounds closer, Order was by no means a doctor but someone with at least two brain cells remaining could see that the cut, both of them for a matter of fact would need stitches.

" Uh...i don't know how to stitch wounds..." She stood before the beast of a man awkwardly scratching the back of my head. She would have asked Law, but as you know, he ghosted the instant he was caught.

He pulled out a paper and a pen from out of his feathery coat and scribbled on it quickly. _Don't worry about any stitches. I heal fast. Just bandage them._

Order gave him a look of uncertainty and squinted further at the agitated red skin. " Are you sure, those things are pretty deep..."

He just nodded and she shrugged, doing as he said, making sure the bandages were wrapped tight enough that no blood would seep through for as long as it could and hold the patches of skin closed, but loose enough so that it wouldn't cut off his circulation. After that, Corazon stood up. He probably meant to ruffle her hair as a thanks or something, but all she saw was a giant hand heading towards her face and she flinched, arms shooting up to brace herself for a fall that wasn't going to come and crouching down low so it would be a little bit more difficult for his tall self to reach her.

Corazon paused and retracted his hand, a shocked look on his face then a regretful grimace. Order's face burned red with embarrassment and relief that he wasn't going to make her kiss the drywall or something flooded her. Still, she couldn't help but laugh nervously and feel ashamed for having such a visceral reaction to simple human interaction. " Haa...haaa Sorry just a reflex."

Order was pretty sure that only made him feel worse though, as he left in a considerably worse mood than he was in. It wasn't long before Doflamingo called them all into the dining room for a meeting. Entering the room, she saw Giolla and Gladius roughly bring in a struggling Law. He writhed in their grip and twisted, but their hold remained firm. Gladius sucked his teeth behind his mask.

" Stop squirming boy." and he thwacked him upside the head, tilting his hat.

Law hissed, adjusted his headwear and let them carry him before Doflamingo, coming to the conclusion that this is where his journey was about to end. She could see no disappointment or resignment on his face. He didn't look regretful but there was no sign that he accepted his fate either. Rather, there was a sort of contemplative look on his face. He was probably wondering why Doflamingo wasn't raging with lava for blood and already slicing him to bacon for harming his brother.

" Found him on the docks looking like he was getting ready to bail." Giolla said, dragging a chair back and sitting in her seat. She leaned back in it, wiping sweat from her brow. Looked like Law gave them a bit of a difficult time.

" Already? It's such a shame. Just as how i was getting ready to finally accept him into our crew." the blond man said, voice smooth and with faux disappointment. A smile was on his face. As usual.

" What?" Law whipped his head towards Doflamingo. He had pointedly not been looking at the don of the family, but rather at his brother, who as always remained quiet.

" Yes. The initaiton process took a bit longer than usual but i can see it your eyes Law. You have a certain quality to you. After experiencing such a horrible past, I figured that that burst a couple weeks ago was just mere desperate anger. But now i see it, you are fully serious in wanting to burn the world. Considering that i'm going to do the same, i can't let a gem like you slip through my hands. Not when you put yourself there." the man smiled, grin widening.

" I half expected you to throw me away for good and I'd just have to find another way to do what i want. I'm going to die in three years anyway. If you were taking me in for personal reasons and not to heed my wants, I wouldn't be beneficial in the long run." Law said.

" Well all of that depends on your luck. We run our own string in the black market. Our specialty, devil fruits. There are millions of devil fruits in the world, but there are hundreds that file through our fingers. I'm positive that before you bite the dust, there'd be a devil fruit that could assist you with your little issue there."

Law frowned " Whatever,do as you like. I'm not looking to extend my life span anyway. There is no cure and i don't believe a bogus magic fruit would be able to do that."

Trebol growled as Doflamingo just laughed at Law's spice " Ne ne, watch how you speak to the young master you little shit."

Law didn't grace Trebol with a verbal retort but rather gave him a swift and sharp gesture. A gesture that would become very trademark to him in the future. Particularly with the Sabody Auction House scene.

" Oi Doffy, what about the girl over there?" Pica pointed at Order and she bit her bottom lip hard to prevent gerself from laughing at his high pitched voice. It sounded like he was constantly streaming helium up his nostrils. The stone-stone fruit user noticed this and snarled at her, but couldn't do anything about it since she hadn't technically laughed at him.

" What's mine is mine, and i'm not going to let go no matter what." Doflamingo said with finality, flashing her a glance. " I'll whip her into Donquioxte standards if she's not up to par. She'll have no choice but to improve."

Order internally scowled at his wording. She wasn't a piece of property. But then again, in Doflamingo's mind, everyone was beneath and just a piece of property waiting to be owned by him. Added to the fact she fueld that delusion regarding herself in him when she showed him that necklace and claimed to be chosen for him. Looking back, she probably shouldn't have said that and come up with a different way for him to take her. But what's done done is done done. Corazon's wet and hacking cough, broke her out of her thoughts. A fist was to his painted lips, muffling the sound as well as he possibly could and holding back the blood that was seeping through his teeth. Doflamingo turned his head towards his brother and she watched Law turn deathly still. He was probably thinking that this was his end, just as he got accepted. Buffalo, had a grin on his face, a knowing grin that could be interpreted as a schnadenfrude one if you looked deep enough. Though at first glance, you didn't think that Buffalo was the type of person to enjoy that type of thing. Then again, he laughed at his own torture at the hands of Pica.

" What's wrong Corazon?" Doflamingo asked, having not seen the blood yet.

The person in question didn't give a verbal answer but shifted slightly. He looked like he made a move to make a sign that everything was alright when he hissed in pain and red smeared all through the fibers of his pink shirt.

" You're bleeding." the older brother said calmly, though through the thick veins throbbing in his forehead, Order could sense he was holding back barely restrained anger. " Who did this." It wasn't a question. It was a demand.

Enemy Corazon lifted up the card, as if he was prepared that this was going to happen. In fact, he had a thin stack of pre-prepared cards for the possible routes that this conversation was going to go down.

" Where is he now?" Doflamingo's fingers twitched, invisble strings, barely glinting in the chandiler light, humming a song that promised a very painful death to the one who harmed the last member of his biological family.

Finished him off

" Good." Doflamingo seemed to calm some, though you could still see the slight shifting of veins beneath the skin of his forehead.

And just as Order let out a breath of relief that this tense scenario was over, Buffalo shouted words that made her blood freeze on the dime. Her heart dropped into my stomach, settling next to the last remnants of that coal from three days ago. It took every fiber of Order's being not to accidentally break her neck swinging it towards Buffalo. Her body went rigid, turned to stone and mouth stapled shut to prevent herself from screaming to the heavens ' Why Buffalo why? Why can't you keep your trap shut and let this sweep? Why must you be so loyal?' But alas, Buffalo was loyal, not to a fault, but loyal enough.

" No! Law was the one who stabbed Corazon-desyaun!"

She could hear each individual vertebrae in Law's neck crack as he moved his head towards Buffalo, with eyes filled with anger and disbelief. Maybe not disbelief with Buffalo personally but probably about the whole situation. Off the hook and into the grinder. Throbbing veins reappeared twicefold in Doflamingo's forehead and she knew Law's blood would be spilled if this wasn't remedied.

" Doflamingo, Buffalo is misinformed! Law did not stab Corazon. I was there. It was just from the angle Buffalo was standing at that made it seem like Law was the one who stabbed your brother." Order's mouth finished the sentence before her brain gave the command to consider the option.

Corazon and Law was barely able to hold back their heads from whipping towards her swiftly in surprise.

" She's lying young master. She's just trying to defend him. I watched him break the Blood Law." Buffalo argued.

Before Doflamingo got a word in edgwise Order shouted again. " Shut up Buffalo and think for one moment! Law doesn't even make to his kneecaps. And he barely makes it to the half mark if he jumps. How on this planet do you think Law could stab Corazon anywhere near above his waistline and the man is a 10 foot giant!" Buffalo was going to make Order strangle him out of fear. She could hear the contemplative twang of string in Doflamingo's fingers as he tried to sort out who was telling the truth and who to punish for lying. Order knew he smelt one. His nose wasn't sharp for nothing.

Buffalo opened his mouth but no sound came out of it. He was cornered. Corazon initially said there was an enemy, if Buffalo tried to deny there being an enemy, it would look like he would be calling Corazon a liar, which Doflamingo would not appreciate his brother being called. There was silence in the living room, a thick heavy silence that could be cut with a tangible object. Someoene's life was on the line after all.

" But-" Buffalo's voice was as meek as a mouse and hollow too. He could not win.

" Do i have any reason to lie Buffalo? My behind isn't the one in danger here." Irder dug the final nail in the coffin, making sure there was no millimeter for the boy to dig into and rip up her argument. Turns out she nearly stuck her foot in her own grave.

There was just more uneasy silence before Doflamingo let out an impatient growl. Someone hurt his brother, and he was itching to spill the blood of the perpetrator.

" Say..." Diamante said slowly, directing his attention to Order. He along with Trebol, were one of the one who's opinion's Doflamingo held in high regard. If Diamante had suspicious on her, then there was no doubt Doflamingo would keep a closer eye on her as well. " Why are you defending Law if you arent in danger of losing your life? Shouldn't you keep your nose out of business that doesn't involve you? In the event you are lying to defend his skin, why risk it?"

Fighting an audible gulp, Order kept my gaze and voice steady. " I'm defending him because my life isn't in danger. I have no reasons to fear any possible consequence as lying for him and endangering myself when i was already in the green zone is a foolish thing to do. Besides, i only have the Young Master's interest in mind. He wants Law, and it would be a shame for him to lose that over Buffalo's simple misunderstanding."

Diamante seemed pleased with my answer, probably because she mentioned his master's interest and leaned back into his seat. Order supposed Doflamingo was observing her too because she no longer felt a steely gaze on my neck.

" Doffy, how about we ask Law what happened? Maybe a different perspective could help sort things out. Honestly, i don't know why such a simple thing already clarified by Corazon blew up into such an issue involving such uncertainty." Senor Pink suggested, trying to hold back a yawn. It was plain to see that he wasn't impressed by all this and heavily reeked of ' let's get this over with, i have better things to do.'

" Ne ne. Are you sure? The little brat could lie his way out. I feel several has already been weaved, it would be very easy for him to bounce off of those that has already been said." Trebol pointed a flaw in Senior's plan.

" You can't lie to a liar." Doflamingo said, looking at Law, hoping that he was truly innocent.

A tap brought his attention away from Law and to his brother. He was holding up a message stretched across two sheets of paper, hand slightly quivering. He must be going into a bit of shock from blood loss. He had been sitting there for quite a bit.

_This is stretching longer than it needs to be. Buffalo is just mistaken okay? Let everyone go. I don't want to bleed out on the table where we have to eat later. And...i think i might be going int a bit of shock._

And Corazon did look a little pale and seemed to be swaying a bit. Doflamingo sighed. " Very well, this will be dropped. I trust that Buffalo truly was mistaken and Law did not stab my brother. Lies were spread tonight and a god was truly on your side tonight that did not find out who was lying and what that lie was. You may all leave. Law, carry Corazon to the med bay and patch him up."

Everyone grumbled as they left, muttering about having their time wasted. Buffalo shot Order a pretty nasty glare as he left but she didn't care. There was someone else who she had her attention on.

Order followed Law and the Heart Executive, making sure to stay out of the line of sight of Corazon. She hightly doubted Law cared if she followed him, but there was a chance that Corazon wanted to 'say' something separate from Law and didn't want anyone to hear it. Timeline was different now. Crouching down by the door and pinning her ears, making sure to position myself in a way that's comfortable but also easy to pitch up and dash away, she listened to a one sided conversation.

" Why did you defend me?" Law asked, voice flat, business like.

" So what if he killed me. Then my desire to burn the world wasn't meant to be." he said as if it were simply facts.

" I don't care if you think that that's a waste of life. Besides's it wasn't like mine is going to last long anyways."

There was no more conversation after that except for the occasional Law shouting at Corazon to " hold still and stop squirming around!" It sounded like Law was having a little bit of difficulty with the youngest Donquioxte brother. Maybe he didn't like needles. Pretty sure that was what was happening. No way Law was going to dismiss Corazon without noticing the man needed stitches. After confirming that there was nothing else note worthy that was going to be said, she ditched her position, making sure not to make any noise as she rose from the floor. It creaked a little, but could easily be passed as someone walking by. Throwing her body across the bed, not even caring she had tresspassed onto Law's side, Order heaved a deep deep sigh. Today was a very long day. Unfortunately, it was not over. There were several hours of sun left. Maybe she could walk around the town or something. Pick pockets then buy something nice.

_'Oh no! I'm thinking like a criminal. It's only been two weeks but i didn't think it was that easy for me to fall into their pace!'_

Order rolled over and stared at the ceiling, a single hand dangling in the air, wondering how she was going to make it. She ended up falling into a light sleep, stretched out on the bed, only awoken when she felt her body being shoved roughly to the floor.

" Jeez. Calling my name would be enough." Order groaned, rubbing at her eye which began watering and yawned.

" Doflamingo wants to see us." Law said flatly before leaving the room.

Law and Order stood before the big bad flamingo in all his pink feathery glory. He seemed less irritated than when they saw him a couple minutes ago. Probably took his frustration out on some poor unsuspecting thugs if the light traces of blood on his face were any indication.

"The day is still young. You two have a lot of work ahead of you in order to be truly useful to this family. Training begins now."

"Now?!" Order couldn't help but exclaim.

Doflamingo grinned. " Yes. Now."


	6. Now or Not At All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Order over thinks and over explains. Its very hard to summarize the concept of the multiverse.

Doflamingo made no error in stating that training would be brutal and merciliess. At the end of just the first day, Order's bones had already felt like jelly and she collapsed to the floor in a spineless heap. Every muscle in her body twitched in agony, overworked in a way it never has been before. While she never was the most athletic, she was not too badly out of shape. This however, was on a completely different level and made her feel weak and pathetic. Almost made her consider whether she had what it took to pull this massive scheme. Almost. She was in too deep now. Her second thoughts regarding the plausibilty of her personal mission meant nothing now that it was properly underway, starting with her full acceptance into the Family. Order heaved a suffering sigh, but that quickly transformed into a painful groan as her chest and stomach burned with the process of inhaling and exhaling air.

  
Law didn't seem to be doing much better either, though he certainly did not look like a pile of useless flesh and bone sprawled about like Order was. Instead, he just laid flat on his back, arms spread directly on the side of him, heavily breathing. A cloud moved and the sun shone directly into my pupil. She squinted behind the lens of her navy blue framed glasses. Despite the sun setting, and the sky shades of pink, purple and orange, the sun was still surprisingly hot.

Shadows grew over Law and Order, blocking the sun's rays. She positioned her head ever so slightly to see Doflamingo's face. He wasn't smiling but he did not have that deep-set frown on his face that showed he was truly disappointed. It landed somewhere in the middle.

" At least you two made it to the end of today's training. Those I trained as a test usually quit withing the first 10 minutes."

" Thanks. I usually try to see things to completion. Even if it seems like there is no way I could do it." she painstakingly rolled over so that she was looking at him directly instead of craning my neck.

" Hmmm. Then I hope you will use that same determination to ensure The Family's missions are completed."

Order simply nodded, clenching her teeth behind her sealed lips as her neck muscles throbbed. Doflamingo then directed his attention to Law, who was struggling to stand in the man's presence. He managed to stand stock still for a whopping three seconds before his legs caved beneath him, toppling right back down to the dusty ground. Order could tell by the wrinkes in his face that he was annoyed. He must have hated looking weak and pathetic in front of the man who would allow him to burn the world. The pink pirate must have noticed too.

" At ease." Doflaming said, a small smile finally gracing his features. " It's only the first day. You will get stronger in time. Though, I do admit I was a bit rough with you two. I'm just eager and excited. Fufufu. Never before have I been presented with this much young potential to grow and harvest at once."

"Get up and rest. Tomorrow will not be any easier. In fact, this next month will only become more difficult as time progresses."

  
" Naturally." Order said.

Doflamingo grinned wider, adding a chuckle. " Especially since in a month's time we'll be procuring a boat and heading to Log Town and Reverse Mountain to enter the Grand Line. It was about time I get off this backwater island and expand my business. I had planned to go much earlier, but I hadn't been expecting you two. However, I'll glady set my plans back if it means getting more capable recruits. The rest of the crew already knows and will be training you in the upcoming weeks in their own fields as well amongst other preparations."

" Aren't we in the North Blue? That's super far away. We'd somehow have to go through the Redline into the East Blue. Then go to Log Town. When we enter the Grand Line we'd have to start all the way at the beginning. In Paradise. When you can cut through the Calm Belt and boom. There's the New World." Order was confused.

" Fufufu." Doflaming laughed. " Ambitious now are we. Well the New World is only for the strongest of the strong. And unfortunately none of us are there yet. Besides, I have much grander plans in store and I plan to have connects all across the Grand Line. From beginning to end. I do not mind starting from the very begining to acheive my goals if it will cause the outcome to be perfect."

Doflamigo walked away, hands grapsed behind his back. He paused for a moment and turned his head slightly back towards them. " I'll assume you two are perfectly up to this task. Do not disappoint." Then he continued to walk without gracing them a moment to respond.

It was just silence for a while as the sun continued to set. Dark was nearly here before Order heard shuffling and saw Law shakily standing up and wobbling back to the house. She took this as the moment to stand up and head back to the house too. She needed a nice hot soak.

In the hallway, Order unfortunately caught the attention of Buffalo who was not very pleased to see her. He made that very evident as he suddenly rammed into her, violently pushing her to the floor.

" Attack me all you want. There's nothing you could do about it now unless you want to die." she glared at him, wiping blood from her nose with the back of her thumb.

" Why'd you defend that traitor-desyaun! He broke the Blood Rule!"

" Corazon already defened him. There was no reason to go against that. It would have been fine if you kept your trap shut. You've never heard the phrase 'snitches get stitches' and it shows."

" 'Snitches get stitches'?" Buffalo parroted with a tilt of his head and a confused look on his face.

" Yes. It means open your mouth when you don't need to, you'll get punched so hard that you'd need stitches at the end." she stood back up, leaning onto the wall for support.

" Whatever. I'll keep my eye on you and make sure you don't lie anymore-desyaun." He frowned and crossed his arms.

Order sighed, not wanting to deal with this anymore. " Just...look. You don't need to do that. You don't. I didn't mean to lie okay? I panicked because Corazon already covered for Law and you messed that up and Doffy really wanted Law and I couldn't let you ruin that for him."

Buffalo inspected her for a second and let out a sigh. " Fine. I'll believe you. It does seem like you're really sorry. And to be honest-desyaun? I would lie to make sure Doffy gets his way too. So...lets just put this behind us? Deal?"

" Deal." Order said, crossing her fingers behind her back, knowing full well Buffalo was going to hold her to this. He did it to Law in the original story so why can't he do it to her?

The handshake was firm and solid and they parted ways. Order went to the bathroom to prepare for the night and he went about his business. After the shower, Order practically threw herself over on her side of the bed, sinking into the rock hard matress. Though, with how sore and tender her muscles were, it felt like heaven. Soon exhaustion overcame her and she found herself asleep before she knew it.

An overwhelming urge to use the bathroom caused her to awaken. Unfortunately, Order shuffling out of the bed caused Law to wake too. He was always a terribly light sleeper. He grumbled a curse at her before snuggling deeper under the covers.

"Sorry." she winced before tiptoeing cross the creaky room floor and going to relieve herself.

Along the way back, in the darkness, house only illuminated by the Bruce Almighty moon outside, she took the turn to the hallway that led to Corazon's room, a light under his door dimly shining. She stood there, idling in the hall for a moment before taking a decisive step forward. The true beginning would take place in a month. She needed Corazon to be on her side as soon as possible. She needed to help him cover his tracks,make sure, that when the time comes, his message would be sent to the correct marines. Waiting would only increase her margin of error. She had no idea of knowing when the undercover spy would begin transfering messages to Sengoku about the Donquixotes locations. It would be terrible for her to be caught unaware and end up on the wrong side of the Marine's rep sheet.

As she continued walking, the pit in my stomach only grew deeper as questions flooded her mind.

_'Am I being too hasty with this? Should I just let this timeline run its course and only interfere at the most critical moments? Would Corazon even believe me after my display?'_

Then she paused for a moment, remembering that Corazon wasn't there for my spiel and she relaxed a bit, reigning in my thoughts before they completely ran away. But she paused again.

_'What if Doflamingo told him what I said afterwards?'_

Order dragged a hand down her face. This overthinking wasn't doing her heart very good. Before Order knew it, she was standing infront of Corazon's door. Evident by all the darker spots in the already dark door from where it burnt from cigarrets, and the little grooves and nicks from where he most likely crashed into it. She let out a calming breath, though that did nothing to calm me. She supposed in a situation like this, anytime would be too soon until it was too late. Before Order attempted to get his attention, she peeled the necklace off her sweaty skin and stuffed it in her pajamas pocket.

She didn't try to push on the door handle, of course that would be locked. Couldn't have anybody stroll in when potentially talking to a top Admiral of the marines, whom most likely reported to Fleet Admiral Kong. She let out my breath and knocked twice, wincing as the sound seemed to echo throughout the deathly quiet house. No response. She waited a couple seconds then knocked twice again. Once again, no response. She waited even longer this time and there was no indication of Corazon being aware of someone at his room door. Perhaps he had his powers activated or was deeply asleep and he accidentaly left a lamp lit.

Either way, the door wasn't answered and She turned to walked away slightly disappointed but mostly grateful that she didn't have to confront him so soon. Order wasn't a foot away from the door yet when it finally opend, soft shadows lining the walls of the hallway and illuminating the better half of the Donquioxte siblings. Turning around to face him, Order noticed he had haphazardly slapped some light makeup on and held a sheet of paper in his hand.

_Yes? Is there anything you need?_

" Not particularly. I just noticed your light and thought you might be awake. ...wanted to see how your wound is doing." Order said softly my unsuredness definitely slipping through her voice.

He scribbled something down. _It is doing fine. Thank you. Fine work. Sure I would have bled much sooner if done myself._

Order give a simple nod. " Well okay then. Goodnight."

Corazon nodded a goodnight back then closed the door. She bit her bottom lip and balled her fist. No. She had his attention. She couldn't let this opportunity slip by. She may not have another chance to catch him alone like this once life became more hectic with my life of piracy in full swing.

" No. I'm not done. Open the door back please? It's...very important for you to know." Order knocked again.

There was a beat and the door opened again. He motioned for me to come inside and she did, with him closing the door behind her. Corazon strode over to his couch and sat on it and she stood before him.

 _Yes?_ He wrote on the paper.

Order decided, she have to ease into this. Corazon took his job very seriously considering the position he was in. This wasn't the Corazon the fandom loved at the moment. Right now, this is the on duty Corazon with one mission and one mission only. Bring down Doflamingo. She had to play on that but first, she needed to ensure that absolutely no one is listening.

" What I'm about to tell you is very serious and very important. What I'm about to reveal to you could put me in a coffin at the bottom of the Calm Belt if the wrong ears manage to hear upon this...or Vegapunk's lab table. So I need you to keep absolutely quiet about this."

 _Okay._ Corazon face as usual showed no emotion so she didn't know how serious his agreement was.

Order pursed her lips, stepping a few feet away from him juust in case. "Okay then...well...I know many things I should not. Unfortunately, there is nothing I could do about that. So I decide to put my...forbidden knowledge to good use."

_Okay. What kind of knowledge then?_

"I need you to stay perfectly calm and not rush at me when I tell you this."

_Okay? You look really scared actually. What is going on?_

Order started what would undoutedly be a lengthy conversation with something simple. "I know you can talk but have a devil fruit called the Nagi Nagi no mi which helps you keep quiet."

Corazon's muscles immediately visibly clenched and instinctively she scooted to the farthest possible wall with my hands crossed over her head in a protective gesture. A second passed but it felt like a year. A horrible year that stretched on and on and never seemed to end. But that year ended and she heard the snap of fingers and a hum. She looked up to see both Corazon and her encased in a purple bubble

" How do you know this." A gravely voice demanded, barely restained whatever he was feeling.

Not inching closer she carefully said. " I know things, that I simply should not. It is because I'm not suppsed to here, in this world. I don't belong here. Yet here I am and there's nothing I can do about it. But...if you know life will become hell on earth for the most undeserving of people...wouldn't you try to do something to change that?"

There was just long, calculating silence. Order didn't like that.

"Doflamingo is a terrible, evil man. The only word capable of describing him would be an absolute _monster_. If he continues to roam, hundreds, no thousands of people will die. I know you're trying to stop him...I want to stop him too. That's why I'm coming to you. To make life a little easier for you."

" Why should I believe you? How do I know I just haven't completely destroyed my mission."

" I'm no snitch. I could have easily agreed with Buffalo just because. I know you didn't want Law to get in trouble so I tried to make it seem like Buffalo was in the wrong. He attacked me for defending him afterwards and even earlier than that I stopped him from squealing to Doflamingo instantly. I was about nearly bulldozed as he raced to tell his precious 'Young Master'." Order filled that hyena's nickname with as much disdain as she could.

Corazon had not relaxed yet he did release some tension, but not nowhere to the amount she would be comfortable around him. " This is all very hard to believe. Not of this world? Preposterous."

"I know it sounds ridiculous but you have to trust me. I...don't know how I got here myself. Even then, if I was truly with the Donquioxtes, don't you think I would have told them how to succeed beyond what they are capable of already? And if I were to tell them in the future, why would I come to you first, actively knowing you're trying to bring him down. That just doesn't add up."

" It doesn't but...if you know how things play out then...why are you interfering?"

"It's because I know how things play out that I'm interfering. Terrible things happen and will keep happening as long as this crew isn't disbanded. As long as your brother isn't rotting in the 6th level of Impel Down chained from arms to waist to legs in heavy duty seastone chains. Just...all around horrific things. I mean...I don't know exactly when or completely how these things happen. Just that they do, and I don't want you or anyone currently on life's chopping block to be caught terribly unaware. Its just...if I really didn't care, the moment I realized where I was, I would have turned tail and fled. Heh...anyone sane enough would." I muttered that part under my breath.

Corazon lifted a fist to his mouth in contemplation, not at all phased she said that his brother needed to be wrapped like a mummy in chains. " I honestly have a hard time believing you. But everything you've said seems too sincere to be a lie and...radical to be a lie made up on the spot or even thought up over time. So...for now I will believe you. However, if I find that this is a trick and you intend to betray me, I'll have no choice but to deal with you."

Order gulped at his threat and gave a single nod. " Understood."

" So...what is it that you know?" Corazon leaned back in his couch, seemlingly opening an ear and mind for me.

" Not alot for this particular era actually. I only know certain time periods and from certain perspectives. This time period...its very spotty, even more so now that I'm here. There's alot of things I'm going into completely blind actually. My knowledge is...heavily depenent on where and when I would have landed."

" Where and when you would have landed?" He raised a brow. " Sounds like you know a bit of what is going on with you already."

" Yes. I've been thinking about my situation for a while actually and I think is has to do with the Theory of Multiple Universes. One studied where I'm from. I know you want an explanation so I'll try to condese this as much as I could considering I've observed some of these worlds. This world, lets call it a timeline. One is yours and one is mine. I'm in my own world, my own timeline, minding my own business and then I'm snatched and dropped here. Depending where on your line I'm dropped and probably a bunch of different factors determines what island I'm on, what year it is and who I meet. At least that's what I think. It's not everyday I'm thrown into a pirate filled universe."

" This is all ridiculous. Multiple universes? I'm so glad I'm still sitting down." he scoffed under his breath. " Okay, so is there knowledge you have but you shouldn't in your own...timeline? It was."

Order shook her head "No. Just how you have no knowledge of the future events of your own world, I have no knowledge of future events of my world. Just that there are multiple worlds out there, each with their own stories and no way to physically access them. At least for the most part. There have been incidents of people crossing worlds though its only limited to people heavily invested in the particular world they're observing. Even within that statistic, the crosses are incredibly rare. ...It's for the best honestly. This world and mine and hundreds of others are all incredibly violent. It wouldn't be healthy for anyone to have the most notorious villians from each others worlds crossing universes like osmosis."

"R-right." Corazon said, unsure how to process what ORder just said. Then he snapped up as if he just remembered something. " You said that you've observed some of these...multiple universes. Is the reason you know what you're not supposed to is because you've observed mine."

Orded nodded. Okay, he was catching on quickly. Perhaps this wouldn't be too difficult to explain as she thought " Yes and millions of other people for that matter."

"Do you know why or how these universes are observed?" he asked. Whether he was disturbed or not about being told there were millions of strangers watching his everymove he didn't show it.

Order shrugged her shoulders and flipped her hand back and forth. " Yes and no? This is just my personal belief anyway. In every universe there is a story that desires to be shared. That story's desire is sometimes so passionate, and burns so brightly that its passion can travel to another universe and implant itself in the mind of one of those residents. That resident is then compelled to share that world's story in whatever form in can. Sometimes as a book, sometimes a moving picture and sometimes as a series of moving pictures or even a game. Then that story is shared to other residents of that world and spreads and spreads and once it starts it doesn't really stop."

Corazon seemed to try to process this information for a second. It really looked like he was struggling to understand what she was saying.

Order sighed. " I know it sound like a load of crap but it's the truth. Honestly? I don't care if you believe the multiple worlds theory or not. All I want is for you to trust me and allow me to help you complete your mission. I think its time we come off this topic anyway."

Corazon looked at Order and agreed. " Yes. This really is alot to take in and I don't think discussing other worlds is really important right now. What's most important is how is it that you are going to help me?"

"Just advise you. That's all I can do really. But before I say anything more, I need to ask you something. How often do you speak with Sengoku? Mission wise?"

"Sengoku? Not alot. In recent times at least. Why?"

"Because you become obvious."

"Obvious?" Corazon sat up straight with an alarmed look on his face. It was something he could not afford to be.

" Yeah." Order nervously scratched behind her head and looked away from him. "As the Donquioxtes traveled you let the Marines know of their locations. Which is fine yes, but it back fires greatly because along your mission, you end up separated from them for about at least 6 months. Because you're not there to alert the marines, the Donquioxtes go undiscovered. Trebol links your absence and the absense of marine presences and begins to suspect that you're either a giant sore thumb or a traitor...they go for the traitor option."

" Shit. That's not good at all." the undercover marine bit the tip of his tongue then looked directly at me. " Do you know when this happens?"

" Around...two years from now?" Order counted on my fingers. " But listen. I can't tell you everything at once okay? Coming from the others who crossed and decided to come back, turns out if you reveal too much major information at once things turn out much worse than they orignially were. For everyone involved. Knowing what I know, and how bad things get. I don't want to risk it. Period. Only if we're in dire straits will I say something."

"Alright. Since you know more than me about this I'll just have to take your word for it. But if I may ask, and it doesn't reveal too much...do I suceeed in bringing my brother down?" he asked, somewhat hopefull.

Order's mouth flew open then snapped shut without a single sound coming out. Should she really tell him, albeit super vaguely? This isn't the original story anymore. The ending has already changed but she really didn't want to invoke the wrath of the apparent BROB's that usually take control of world's like these. Pursing her lips together, Order made a decision to warn him.

" Me being here changes the original ending. This is where the original timeline splits from the truth into an...unprecedented possiblity. Yet most of the original still holds firm here and as such the threat of a worse ending still holds firm. I don't know if there are any repercussions for telling you this but...if it will give you ease then I will and may just have to face any oncoming consequences."

" It will ease me and I will accept the consequences of your actions as well since I asked you of it."

Order paused for a moment then looked at him. " You personally do not stop your brother however, someone else does. Someone you've touched deeply. They don't do it for the same reasons though, and it takes a hell of a long time and it takes them, a rubber brained powerhouse and pretty much an entire fleet to stop Doflamingo and his crew but they get it done."

Corazon seemed to let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. " Okay. Not the answer I was expecting but certainly better than him not being stopped at all. But...that's the original isn't it? We're the unprecented possiblity."

" Well...the way I see it, this can go four ways. We get the original ending with longer steps. The original ending with shorter steps. A worse ending and a better ending. I'm banking for the better ending."

"Can you tell me at all what the orignial ending was like?"

Order rapidly shook her head. " That's a definite no no. I'm trying to keep things as vague as possible here to avoid the 'Worse Ending.' Anything with significant detail is out of the question."

"Oh." Corazon was disappointed but understood. " I guess there's the end of that. Are you positive there isn't any other critical information to be aware of."

Well...there was one more thing she could tell him. But, she could only see all the different ways telling him can go wrong. She highly doubted there was any path with this information that could lead to good things happening. Especially considering who this little tidbit of information was about. Besides, this wasn't for Corazon to find out anyway. It was for Law. Order put her fist to her mouth in contemplation and looked to the side for a bit, then shook her head.

" No. This is it. That's all for now I'm sure of it. As I said, I don't want so say too much in case I unlock the Worse Ending and I don't want to overwhelm you either. What I'm saying...I admit its a lot and unbelievable too and we've been talking for quite awhile so... I guess I'm going to leave now? And give you time to think about and analyze what I've said." Order wasn't sure how to end this rather unusual conversation.

" Yes." Corazon nodded. " I will take your advice into consideration."

" Please do." Order said before going towards the door. With her hand on the knob, slowing turning it but not looking at him she said "One last thing. Stop throwing the kids. They won't be persuaded to leave. Doflamingo is currently their only support system so no matter what you do they won't go. They just take you hitting them as a game, well at least Buffalo and Baby 5 which is kind of messed up to be honest and borderline child abuse so...yeah cut that out. That's all I have to say. G'night."

Without giving him a chance to respond Order left and made her way back to her room where she found Law sitting up reading a book with the light of an oil lamp. Whether he noticed she came into the room or not he made no indication of, continuing to be immersed in his book. Sliding back under the covers on my side of the bed, she shivered, realizing how cold it was.

" What had you so long?" He asked, voice flat and without actual interest.

" What's it matter to you? It's not like you to care about any of my affairs. Last time I checked, you hate me and wanted nothing much to do with me aside from our mutual affiliaton with the Donquioxtes." Order unecessarily matched his flatness with defensiveness.

" I don't care. This is merely curiosity speaking." His eyes still didn't peel from his book as he flipped to the next page.

" Then your curiosity will continue to speak without answer then." she said and turned so that her back faced him.

He merely huffed, shuffled and snapped his book shut before blowing out the lamp and going back to sleep. Tomorrow continued their month long training session and preparation to enter the Grand Line. Even though the first half is considered Paradise, it didn't mean that it was okay to not slack off and train. There are some pretty tough pirates and marines in Paradise that took several shots to beat. Of course, considering this is about 13 years in the past there is a possibility this sea could be even more chaotic and untamed! Order grimaced at that possibility, thinking about all of the other dangers the Grand Line presents on steriods. Bunching the comforter in her hand, Order made a silent vow to persevere.

For Law and for Corazon.


End file.
